


Tsukasa Kuze: Kind Spirit

by Wizardess Heart Side B (AmaranthPrincess21)



Category: Shall We Date?: Wizardess Heart+
Genre: "Illnesses", Discussions on Death, F/M, Shit ton of OCs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:47:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 36,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26946190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmaranthPrincess21/pseuds/Wizardess%20Heart%20Side%20B
Summary: I've been chosen as a provisional student for the famous Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy! But as the Trial period goes on, I'm hit with too much at one time: trying to catch up with the prodigy students of the Night Class and becoming buddies with the quiet and kind Tsukasa Kuze. Tsukasa is wonderful, but as his health takes a turn for the worse, I have to find a way to make him well again.
Relationships: Azusa Kuze & Main Character, Azusa Kuze & Tsukasa Kuze, Tsukasa Kuze/Reader
Kudos: 1





	1. A Chance Meeting

**Author's Note:**

> This is the second "route" of my fan series The World Below! You don't have to read the first route to understand Tsukasa's, though. We don't do chronological order routes here.  
> This fic takes place in an AU where the MC is chosen for the Night Class instead of the Day Class and the Kuze brothers are older than their canon counterparts.

The sun was starting to set as the train pulled into Gedonelune Station. I was ready at the doors, things gathered together and I was practically vibrating. Once the doors opened, I’d enter Gedonelune Town. Just to think, the moment I’d been waiting for for years was finally almost here!

“Aren’t you eager?” The Acceptance Letter commented snidely as he floated over to me. He’d been like this entire trip. I tried to ignore his sour demeanor.

“Of course I am! This is the beginning of something amazing!” I replied.

“You mean it _could_ be. You’re still not an official student,” he pointed out. Take deep breaths, just try to ignore his jabs. But that was easier said than done.

“So? Why should I let that bring down my mood? This is still an awesome experience!” I did my best not to sound angry. He was probably one of those idiots who thought showing emotion in arguments meant you were invalid. He just sighed.

“I guess I can’t argue with that,” he said. For a moment, I thought I’d finally won. But then he spoke up. “But you better get your head out of the clouds. If you don’t get serious, you’ll never make it here.”

“That’s not fair. Just because I’m excited means I’m not serious? How in the world are those related to each other?” I retorted.

“Ugh, you know what I mean.”

I bit my tongue. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to know he was thinking I was being immature. How many times in my life had I heard that my enthusiasm and happiness was immature and that alone meant I didn’t deserve respect? Enough times to know the Acceptance Letter would just scoff and say that pessimism and being a jerk makes you more “adult” and worthy of respect. A terrible outlook on life, but whatever.

The train came to a stop and as soon as the doors opened, I flew onto the platform and into town. The pastel pink and orange sunset became more and more vivid as the sun made its daily plunge into darkness. Little by little, the streetlamps and windows of the town started to light up, glittering like the stars back in home in Reitz.

The town was so busy, even though it was getting late. It was so unlike Reitz, where things started closing up at five or six in the evening. I found a small bench to sit on, waiting for one of the prefects to come pick me up.

“What do the prefects look like? What should I be looking for?” I asked him.

“I don’t know what the other one looks like, but the one that usually comes to get students has short black hair and green eyes. He’s fairly tall, if I remember correctly,” the Acceptance Letter told me.

“Okay! I’ll keep my eyes peeled for him.”

“It’s strange, though…” The Acceptance Letter started to speak, but then trailed off. _That’s not exactly something I wanna hear,_ I thought.

“What?”

“Usually, Nox is always here to greet the students. He’s never been late once,” he told me. That was a bit concerning, but I quickly reminded myself that I shouldn’t assume the worst right off the bat.

“Isn’t the campus far from town? He could’ve been held up,” I suggested.

“Potentially. Hopefully he’ll be here soon.”

That didn’t really inspire any optimism in me, but what else could I do? Every time I saw someone vaguely matching Mr. Letter’s description, I’d perk up, but every time they’d walk away. The minutes turned into hours. We waited and waited and there was no sign of Prefect Nox. I kept a constant look out for him, but as the night dragged on and the sunset was replaced with a star-filled sky, there was no sign of the prefect.

“Should… um…” I trailed off. _How can I even contact him? It’s not like I have a Magic Phone or something…_ I fell silent, unsure of what to do. The crowds were slowly thinning out and just when I was about to suggest we head on by ourselves, a Magic Note flew into view and landed neatly in my lap. “Oh…”

I quickly unfolded and read it. It was an apology from Prefect Nox and Prefect Rex, telling me they were tied up on campus and couldn’t come get me. They said the Acceptance Letter would be able to bring me to campus in there stead. I fought back a sigh. To say I was irritated was an understatement. _I really wish they’d sent this out earlier. I could’ve been settling in by now…_ From my side, the Acceptance Letter sighed.

“That’s really a shame. But I suppose I can lead you back myself,” he said. _You… “suppose?”_

“Can we go get some food first? I’m starving.”

“No! We can’t take any detours. We need to get to campus immediately!”

“But we’ve been sitting here for hours and I haven’t eaten anything since lunch.”

“You can eat once we get to campus. Your side of campus has a cafe that never closes.”

My side of campus…

The Night Class.

A secret student body of the Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy that studied elemental dark magic. I don’t know why I’d been chosen to be a part of it, but here I was. My dark magic was basically non-existent; Gedonelune outlawed all dark magic centuries ago. There were some movements to try and end the ban on elemental dark magic, but so far, they were just movements.

The Acceptance Letter trudged ahead, leaving me behind. I gathered up my things and followed after him. Despite it getting late, lots of shops were still open and the smells wafting onto the street from cafes was intoxicating. The sharp ache in my stomach reminded me how long ago it’d be since I ate. Why was he so dead-set on me not eating? Did he _want_ me to starve?

“Are you sure I can’t just pop into a cafe and get something to go?” I asked, hopefully.

“No. We need to get to campus.” I fought back a pout.

“It’s easy for you to say that when you don’t need food. My last meal was ten hours ago,” I pointed out.

“Then you should’ve packed snacks,” he replied sourly.

“You showed up to my house and gave me an hour to pack. Of course I didn’t grab food.”

“It’s not my problem you didn’t pack food.”

I’d get better results talking to a _wall._ The urge to tear into him was strong, but I bit back my words. It wouldn’t do me any good to fight with him. It’d just make our trek to the castle awkward and no doubt I’d be in a worse mood than I already was in. Also I wasn’t sure if physically tearing him would count as murder.

“Fine. Let’s go, then.” If I could breeze past him, I would. I just hoped this trek wouldn’t take too long. My stomach kept growling the longer we walked. And to my dismay, the amount of shops slowly dwindled until we reached what looked like a small boathouse. Beyond it, dark waters spread over the land and at the end, the towering castle loomed on top of a hill. My heart raced at the sight.

“Will we be riding a boat to campus?”

“At this hour? Good heavens, no! We’ll be taking the bridge route. Come along.” He made a sharp turn, walking down a path that went along the lake. My soul shriveled up.

We walked and walked and walked and walked. We traveled on the outskirts of a forest, down a long bridge and through the face gate, up too many flights of stairs, and when I thought we were done with stairs, there were even more. The bottoms of my feet were aching and my legs were nothing more than jelly when we reached a mausoleum. I didn’t care if the Acceptance Letter was just going to kill me and bury me here; I wanted to rest.

“This is the entrance to the Night Class. There’s only one entrance to your part of campus, so remember that you need to go through the casket with the name ‘Robin Geralta’ on it,” the Acceptance Letter instructed me.

“Robin Geralta? Who’s she?” I asked.

“She was a Night Class student like yourself. She was Prefect last year.” Hm. Not sure if I liked that past tense.

“‘Was?’”

“She got pregnant in the middle of last semester and took a leave to have the baby. She’s alive, so I don’t know why they put her name there,” he said.

That’s a little too morbid for my tastes. But I’m glad she’s alive and well. The mausoleum was surprisingly well lit and sure enough, on a stone slab there was Robin’s name, crudely chiseled into the stone. That didn’t help me figure out if it was a jab or an honor, but I wanted to believe this was done with good intentions (just with bad craftsmanship).

“Well?” I flinched as the Acceptance Letter spoke sharply. “Go ahead and lift the lid up!” _So demanding…_ Although my body protested, I leaned down and lifted the slab up. Green light and a light fog came out from the darkness; I could barely make out the stairs. The Acceptance Letter immediately floated in, going down the stairs. _Great. More stairs._ I groaned and followed.

Thankfully, this staircase wasn’t too long. It felt like we reached the bottom landing after only a few steps. The area, again, had more light that I expected. There were fake windows with moonlight pouring in and wrought iron chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. This must be campus, then. Even with the lighting, it’s a lot more dreary than I imagined it would be.

“What are you doing here?!”

I turned to the demanding voice. A handsome, slender man with black hair was quickly approaching us, robes flowing behind him.

“Nox, this is the new student,” the Acceptance Letter told him. Nox’s demeanor immediately changed from anger to surprise.

“The new student?” Nox asked, blinking. His face fell. “I’m sorry we couldn’t come get you. I, uh, I’ll walk you to the dorms.” He motioned for me to follow him and I quickly fell into step with him.

“What’s with the face? You look terrible,” the Acceptance Letter told him. So, he’s rude to everyone. I don’t know if that makes me relieved or sad…

“We’re actually in the middle of an investigation and this part of campus is locked down,” Nox explained. Investigation? A lock down? What did that mean? “Let me get you to the dorms and I’ll come by later tonight to give you a real orientation.” Nox grabbed my arm and started pulling me along down the hallway in front of us. The Acceptance Letter just sighed and made a home in my bag.

“This is the end of the line for me. Good luck on your Trial,” the Acceptance Letter said. “You’ll need it.” My fist clenched, but I stayed quiet. Was that little jab necessary? I hated to think it, but good riddance.

“Did he give you a lot of trouble?” Nox asked me.

“Oh no, not at all!” A lie, but sometimes, a little white lie is sweeter than the truth. Nox smirked at me.

“You don’t have to lie. We all know the Acceptance Letter is a jerk. I was just hoping he wasn’t too bad to you.”

“He’s just, um, a little intense…” I replied. Nox just laughed. We stepped up to a stone arch with gray gauze dangling down from it

“That’s one way to put it,” he said. “By the way, this is the only entrance to the dorms.” He didn’t hesitate to pull me in. In a second, we were outside in a forest. Trees surrounded us and there was some kind of black fog dancing among the trees. Nox lead me through a gate and in front of us was an impressive building. “This is the dorm. To get inside the building and your room, just tap your wand to the door handle.”

The foyer was strange. Dark wood and dark furniture was everywhere, but the chandelier shone brilliantly. It felt dark, but more in atmosphere than in lighting. I couldn’t say I was used to this. Most of the buildings in Reitz were definitely not decorated like this. Well, maybe around Halloween some where, but this wasn’t normal to me at all.

“This floor has the common room, a game room, mine and Rex’s suite, the spa, and an infirmary,” Nox informed me.

“Spa?!”

“It’s nothing fancy,” he said nonchalantly, as if he was talking about a vending machine and not a spa. “But it’s nice after a long week.” No, it’s definitely fancy to have a spa in your dorms… Although part of me wondered if maybe this was just a private school thing. Maybe all private schools had fancy things like this. As Nox pulled me towards the elevator, a door to our left opened and a young man, sickly pale and purple hair framing his face, walked out.

“Hello!” I said cheerfully.

“Hi there.” He gave me a kind smile. Warmth like sunshine radiated from him. I couldn’t help but give him a smile back.

“I guess you’re the new transfer student?” he mused.

“I am! Wait, how did you know that?!”

“Prefect Nox told us yesterday we’d be getting a new student and to behave ourselves. Uh, I mean, told us just to give us the heads up.” He grimaced as Prefect Nox gave him an exasperated looked. I just giggled. He seemed really nice! And man, what a relief that was. Part of me was worried everyone was going to be like the Acceptance Letter. But Nox and this guy seemed genuinely nice.

“Pfft, I didn’t hear that bit about behaving,” I told him.

“Haha, thank goodness,” he laughed. I gave him my name as I stuck my hand out for him. He shook it gently, his skin soft against mine.

“I’m Tsukasa Kuze,” he introduced himself.

“Tsukasa, how are you feeling? You scared us…” Nox asked him. The smile from Tsukasa’s face disappeared immediately.

“I’m sorry about that. But I’m feeling fine. I can go back to class now.” The what I was sure was supposed to be reassuring smile on his face didn’t quite reach his eyes. Nox just frowned at him.

“No, you can’t. Another incident happened and class is canceled for the rest of the day,” he said. Tsukasa’s face fell, but he nodded.

“That’s understandable,” Tsukasa replied.

“Tell you what, can you do me a favor?” Nox asked. “Can you take our new transfer student to their room for me? I really need to get back to campus.”

“Sure, I can do that,” Tsukasa nodded. Nox smiled, relieved.

“I owe you one. They’re in Isabelle’s suite in the room between hers and Aika’s.”

“Okay, understood.” Nox turned to me.

“I’ll come back in a few hours and give you your orientation, all right? Welcome to the Academy, by the way.” And without another word, he quickly left. Tsukasa sighed, shoulders slumping ever so slightly.

“He’s usually not this frazzled. He’s just stressed,” he said. What happened to make him so frazzled, though? The memory of his anger when he first saw me popped up in my mind’s eye. He didn’t look ready to kill, but it looked like he wasn’t that far off from it.

“I see. I wonder what happened to make him like this.”

“I don’t know. But we’ve been having a lot of weird things happen on campus this semester.” He sighed before glancing down towards my feet. “Here, let me help you.” He reached for my suitcase and picked it up. I quickly tried to grab it from him.

“You don’t have to carry my stuff!”

“You have both hands full. It’s fine.” He gave me a warm smile and somehow, I felt unwilling to argue with him. I trailed after him, going into the elevator and riding up to my floor.

“So… Um… What year are you?” I asked.

“I’m an Unus student. What about you?”

“Me too!”

“Great! We’re classmates then.” The idea of having Tsukasa in the same class as me was calming. I wouldn’t be in a class full of strangers. I mean, it would mostly be strangers, but I had at least one friendly face to look to.

The doors to the dorm suites were propped open with everything from books to bricks that looked like they were taken from school buildings to platform clogs. Tsukasa turned into one and I quickly memorized the number as I stepped inside. There was a door to our left, to our right, and three in front of us. All the doors except the one in the middle were open and I could hear voices and music coming from the dorm room to my right.

I took out my wand and tapped the knob like Nox instructed me. It opened immediately and I went inside. The room was fairly spacious and there was only one bed. Thank goodness. I have the room all to myself.

“Oh, you have a single too,” Tsukasa commented, placing my suitcase down by my dresser.

“You don’t have a roommate either?”

“Well, yes, but my room is set up for two people. My brother sleeps over on the weekends, so it’s like I have a roommate, but just for a couple of days. It’s not that bad.”

“You have a brother?”

“Yeah. He’s a Day Class student though, so we only see each other on the weekends.”

“That sucks.” I couldn’t imagine having a sibling and then getting separated from them like this. Although I think the siblings back home in Reitz would disagree with me.

“It sort of do- Well, it’s not too bad. I still see him a lot.” He smiled, but this time, it didn’t reach his eyes.

“Tsukasa? What’re you doing here?” A girl’s voice suddenly filled the room. I looked over and a girl my age stood in the doorway of my room. But as soon as our eyes locked, she hurried in. “Oh my gosh, the transfer student is here?! Welcome to the Night Class! I’m Aika, I’m in the room to the right!” Just a few steps behind her was an incredibly tall guy with long, pinkish-purple hair.

“I think it’s technically to the left,” he said. “At least that’s how it is when you walk into the suite.”

“Ugh, you know I’m not good with directions, Dorian!” Aika complained. He laughed and threw his arm around her shoulders. I had to wonder if they were friends or dating. There was a sigh by the door.

“Oh boy. Here we go again.” A girl with long purple curls scampered into the room, a platter of cupcakes in her hands. I tried not to stare at them. It’d been so long since I ate… I prayed my stomach wouldn’t make any noise. The curly-haired girl grimaced.

“I’m sorry about them. They do this a lot. I’m Isabelle, I’m in the room over there,” she said, cocking her head to the side.

“It’s nice to meet you guys!” I said before introducing myself.

“Nice to meet you too!” Isabelle said. “Here, I made these for you this evening.”

“Thank you!” Isabelle was an angel on earth, that much I knew. I took the platter and put it on my dresser. Maybe I should’ve showed some more restraint, but I immediately tore into a cupcake. Dorian snatched one off the plate, taking a bite before giving it to Aika.

“You can have one too if you like, Tsukasa,” Isabelle told him.

“Are you sure?”

“Yeah, go ahead!”

“Thank you.” Tsukasa instantly cheered up. He grabbed one and started nibbling on it. I was already on my second one.

“These are really good, Isabelle,” I told her. She beamed.

“Thanks! I’m glad to hear it. I was worried my cooking was a little rusty,” she laughed.

“They’re right. These are perfect,” Tsukasa said as he joined my side.

“Yeah, they’re okay,” Dorian said. He took Aika’s cupcake out of her hands and took another bite. She gave him an indignant look.

“Good!” Isabelle said. She smiled and leaned against the wall next to Dorian. Next to him, it was evident how short she was. Although Dorian looked unnaturally tall. I wonder just how tall he is.

“I’m 6’9 and Isabelle is 4’1,” Dorian spoke up suddenly. “I can read minds.”

“What?!” He can read minds?! No, that has to be a joke, right? But as I stared at him, he looked so serious. Aika rolled her eyes and elbowed him in the ribs. He just laughed.

“Dorian, stop messing with them. He just make a lucky guess. You’re not the first to stare like that,” she told him. “He’s too all and since we’re short in this household, he just looks even taller.”

“I didn’t realize you were that tall,” Tsukasa frowned.

“Height isn’t everything,” I quickly said. Immediately, Tsukasa’s mood brightened a bit.

“I actually agree,” Dorian commented. “I prefer shorter partners and they’re easy to find for me.”

“Oh, please, like you have a preference at _all,”_ Aika teased him. He just gave her a teasing smile back

“You’re my preference,” he replied.

“Oh my God, shut UP. You’re so embarrassing!” she cried. Her face was bright red and she tried to hide it in her hands. Aw, that’s kind of cute. I’d like someone to be cute with.

“I like tall women, but really, I don’t care in the end. As long as you’re not a guy, my little bisexual heart is happy,” Isabelle commented, clearly trying not to laugh at Aika. She shifted her weight and looked off into space.

“You know, we’re a pretty diverse campus now that I think about it. We have students of every size, half of us are foreign exchange students, and we’ve got enough queer students to make a club for it,” she said.

“It’s a shame we can’t flaunt any of that.” Again, Tsukasa’s shoulders fell a little.

“Yeah. It’d be nice to show off how diverse we are. But that’s not going to happen anytime soon. Not with the whole secrecy thing,” I said.

“It’s not so bad. We’re safe here,” Aika pointed out. I wanted to ask why that mattered: after all, this was a school, of course it should be safe! But Tsukasa beat me to the punch, quickly speaking up.

“Yes, but it’s stifling, don’t you think? We can’t tell anyone about our accomplishments. We just have to stay silent and pretend we’re all self-taught prodigies once we graduate,” he argued.

“Frankly, I don’t care if we’re stifled,” Isabelle said with a shrug. “If we’re safe, that’s all that really matters to me. I don’t care if I can’t put this on job applications. I’m safe here and I don’t need anything else.” Tsukasa’s lips were pressed into a fine line and everyone could see he was deciding whether or not to fight back even more.

“I guess when you put it that way…” Tsukasa still looked like he wasn’t convinced, though. Dorian gave him a sympathetic look.

“You’ll understand it when you’re older. There’s nothing better than feeling safe and being secure,” he said. The corners of Tsukasa’s mouth twitched, but he said nothing. Although I was sure Dorian wasn’t trying to be patronizing, admittedly it did come off like that. An uncomfortable silence fell in my room. Isabelle cleared her throat after a few seconds.

“Well, uh, I’m sure our new transfer student has a lot of unpacking to do. We’ll call you in for dinner once Dorian’s done with it,” Isabelle announced.

“Yeah, I should get started on dinner. You’re welcome to join us, Tsukasa,” Dorian said.

“Thank you, but I’m full from the cupcake,” Tsukasa said politely.

“Oh well. I guess more for us,” Aika shrugged. She followed after Dorian, the two leaving the room. Isabelle gave me a little wave before heading out. Tsukasa just looked after them, shoulders slumping a bit. I gently grabbed his shoulder.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Oh, uh, yeah. I’m fine,” he replied. Again, another smile that didn’t quite meet his eyes. “Um, I’ll leave you be. You’ve probably got a lot of work to do.”

“Y-Yeah, I guess so…” It’s not like I could beg him to stay and he was right: I had a lot of stuff to unpack.

“I’ll see you later,” he said.

“Yeah! See you later.” Tsukasa nodded and turned around, leaving my dorm room. Well, that certainly happened. I tried to push the argument from my mind as I started to unpack. Right now, I just needed to focus on my studies and becoming an official student. If there were arguments, I just needed to ignore them. Drama would only distract me. But the look of quiet anger on Tsukasa’s face wouldn’t leave my mind.


	2. On the Very First Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's my first day of classes and things are harder than I thought they'd be. And now something strange happens with Tsukasa...

The shrill ringing of my alarm woke me up and immediately my stomach was rolling. The strong smell of bacon and something sweet was strong in my room. If anything, it made my nausea worse. I didn’t even open my eyes as I turned my alarm clock off. Did I really have to get out of bed? Couldn’t I just sleep a little longer?

 _Five more minutes wouldn’t hurt…_ I plucked the clock from my nightstand and just as I was about to reset it, there was loud knocking on my door.

“Time to wake up! If you keep sleeping, you’ll miss breakfast!” Isabelle’s voice shouted from the other side. Ugh… With my stomach feeling so gross, maybe that’d be for the best. Would I be able to keep anything down right now, anyway?

“Okay, thanks, Isabelle!” I replied as cheerfully as I could given how little sleep I’d gotten. I groaned as I got out of bed. I hadn’t even done anything yet and I already felt dead tired. Somehow, I stumbled through getting dressed and ready for the day.

When I stepped out of my dorm room, the smell of breakfast just intensified. The door to our kitchen was open and as soon as she caught sight of me, Isabelle waved me in.

“Oh, there you are! We were wondering when you’d get up,” Aika greeted me. She was seated at the table, blonde hair tucked into a neat bun and make up done. How did she have energy for that? It felt so early, even though I knew it wasn’t.

“Your food’s gonna get cold,” Dorian spoke up. He was standing at a counter, pouring batter into a fancy-looking waffle maker.

“You made me breakfast?”

“Of course he did,” Isabelle said. “He cooks all our meals.”

“He’s totally the daddy of our dorm suite,” Aika added.

“How dare you make me go through the five stages of grief this early in the morning,” Isabelle hissed. Aika just shrugged, taking a sip of her cocoa.

“What? I’m not wrong,” she commented nonchalantly. “Also it’s like, eight in the evening.”

“YOU KNOW WHAT I MEANT!”

Unsure of what to say, I just grabbed the plate of food Dorian brusquely shoved towards me and sat down across from Isabelle, who now had her head down on the table. Dorian sighed and grabbed his own plate, sitting across from Aika. I cut into the fluffy omelet and cheese started spilling out. _Dang, Dorian’s really making some fancy stuff._

“So, are you nervous?” Isabelle asked me, sitting up, chin resting on her hands.

“Oh, um… yeah, a little,” I told her.

“You’ll be fine. Your class has some total sweethearts,” she reassured me. _That’s a relief._ I already knew Tsukasa was a classmate, and if everyone was like him, I’d be able to make friends fast.

“You mean there’s four decent people out of fifteen in their class,” Dorian muttered under his breath. My stomach had slowly stopped feeling sick, but thanks to that quip, the nausea was back. _There’s only four nice people in my class?_

“I mean, that’s better than none!” Isabelle said hurriedly. She pouted before smiling at me. “Ugh, whatever. Anyway, you’re going to be fine. Your class is small and as long as you stick to the nice ones, you’ll be fine. You have Tsukasa, but you also have Hiro and Clive and you’ll love them.”

“Fandamilia is also very nice but jeez, she’s so energetic when she’s not drunk,” Dorian added. Aika glared at him, fixing her posture to be pin-straight.

“Dorian, are you _trying_ to start a fight at the breakfast table?!” Her voice was harsh. Cold. She nervously glanced over to Isabelle, who had a similar look of fury on her face like Aika had had moments ago. “Isabelle, ignore him.”

“Don’t befriend Fandamilia,” Isabelle commanded.

“Our newbie can befriend who they want. Fandamilia is nice and even though she has her faults, she still deserves to have friends,” Dorian argued heatedly.

“Uh…” How was I supposed to react to this? It’s not like I knew Fandamilia and could say anything to support Isabelle or Dorian. There was no other choice but to just sit there and watch the scenario implode before my eyes.

“Isabelle doesn’t get along with Fandamilia anymore,” Aika whispered to me. But that didn’t really do anything to clear this up. Why didn’t they get along? Why were they friends in the first place? Why do I need to avoid Fandamilia? Dorian sighed and sat his teacup down onto the table a bit too forcefully, some tea sloshing over the side.

“Look, befriend her or don’t. Make the choice for yourself and not because Isabelle told you to,” he told me. His eyes were burning and I couldn’t do anything but sit there and wither under the pressure. Isabelle just rolled her eyes.

“I’m just trying to save them some heartache. It sucks when you befriend someone and then they try to justify some jerk’s terrible behavior,” she said. Oh. I guess that explains a little more. But I still wish I could get the full picture.

“I don’t like him either, but Fandamilia needs friends that aren’t Zeus,” Dorian said. “How do you expect her to grow if she doesn’t make more friends?”

“I don’t think you can even call them friends. He doesn’t really acknowledge her,” Aika lamented. She sighed, stirring her cocoa. “She should just summon herself a boyfriend like I did.”

“What?” Did I hear that right? No, there’s no way I heard that right.

“Oh, a gender-reversed take on the ‘hur dur my wife’s a demon’ boomer joke. Classy. Innovative. Straights can keep their rights now,” Isabelle retorted.

“Oh my God, shut up. If I can’t be the cute one, I have to be the funny one,” Aika replied, just as fiery. Dorian just pouted at Isabelle.

“I can’t believe you’d call me or Aika straight. I might be dating Aika but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate a nice, tall man willing to destroy this -”

“I HATE THIS FAMILY!” Aika shrieked. Dorian just snickered instead of finishing his sentence, but it’s not like I didn’t know what he was going to say. Part of me wanted to say, “let him speak,” but I don’t know if I can really joke around with them like that yet.

There was a knock on the wall and when I turned around in my seat, I saw Tsukasa sheepishly standing there. Everyone straightened up a bit.

“Oh, hey, Tsukasa. Care to join us?” Isabelle asked, starting to get up. But Tsukasa just shook his head and Isabelle plopped back down into her chair.

“No, thank you,” he told her before turning to face me. “I came to see if you were ready to head to class.”

“Me?!” It made my heart flutter a little bit, as strange as it was.

“Oh, really now…” Dorian commented, voice low. Aika reached over and lightly smacked Dorian’s arm at his mischievous tone. Something about it made me flustered and I started looking around wildly for my bag.

“Oh, um, give me a moment to do dishes,” I said. I started to stand up, but Dorian snapped and in an instant, my dishes floated into the sink.

“I take care of the dishes. Don’t worry about it,” he said, flashing me a smile.

“Are you sure?” I didn’t want to just let him do all the work, especially since he made breakfast.

“This is how it always is,” Aika told me. “Don’t let us keep you.”

“If you say so…” I grabbed my bag before joining Tsukasa. We fell in step with each other as we made our way to the classrooms.

“How did you sleep this morning?” he asked.

“I was out. The trip yesterday was more exhausting than I realized,” I laughed. Part of me wondered if I should bring up last night. He wasn’t really having a good time, but if he came to get me, then he must be feeling a bit better. And besides, maybe it wasn’t my place to pry into his life. “It’s weird how tiring travel is.”

“I know, right?” he said, a large smile on his face. “When my brother and I moved here, we were both so exhausted from the trip that we slept for a full day once we got to our inn.”

“You moved here?”

“Yeah. My brother and I lived in Hinomoto all our lives, but we moved to Gedonelune four years ago. It was right after my fourteenth birthday.”

“Oh, that’s exciting. Do you like it here?” I’d lived in Reitz my whole life. I didn’t really know much about Hinomoto other than it was an archipelago east of us. That was it, basically.

“I do. Hinomoto was really nice and I wouldn’t mind moving back, but I really like Gedonelune and I’m glad Azusa had us move.” _That must be his brother._ “We used to live in the imperial court and while it was nice living in luxury, I’m not a huge fan of having so many rules. I think some rules are necessary, but there were some that were just dumb.”

As Tsukasa told me about his life living among royalty, we got to campus. The hallways were full of students just milling around and it was the same inside our classroom. There were already some students in their seats, reading or sketching absentmindedly or just staring off into space. No one acknowledged us when we came in and no one said a word as Tsukasa lead me to the front row and sat down. I took the seat next to him, to the right of a girl with a big, green ponytail full of curls and in front of a guy with black hair with bleached ends. I quickly got my things out of my bag. I wanted to ask him how difficult classes were, but it’s not like I could now. What if someone overheard and made fun of me? The girl next to me didn’t seem like she’d notice since she was fidgeting with some paper, but the guy behind me had bad vibes radiating from him.

The bell abruptly rang and the remaining students filed in quickly. The girl next to me slumped a bit and put her paper away, taking out a notebook. The nerves in my stomach started to act up as more people came inside. This was really happening. My very first day of classes at Gedonelune Royal Magic Academy! I just hoped I could keep up with everyone else. Prefect Nox walked into the classroom, a smile on his face. Okay, this wasn’t bad at all! I had Tsukasa here with me and I had Prefect Nox teaching my first class!

“Okay, everyone here? Good. Let’s get started.” Nox leaned against the podium, eyes lazily scanning the classroom. We locked eyes and his grin widened. “Although, I guess I should introduce our new student.”

“Oh!” I shot up out of my chair, waving nervously to the rest of the class. Apathetic eyes met mine, if they looked up at all. Tsukasa was the only one who greeted me with a smile. That melted some of my nervousness away. “Hi, I’m the new transfer student!” I gave them my name. “Let’s, uh, let’s do our best to get along.”

“Sounds fake, but whatever,” someone spoke up. I couldn’t tell who it was. The rest of the class snickered and I sunk back into my seat. I glanced over to Tsukasa, but he was glaring at another student.

“That was rude.” Yikes, what that really Tsukasa talking back?! Sure, I didn’t know him well, but for him to sound so angry and ready to throw down was disconcerting, to say the least.

“Hey, let’s not get into a fight, okay?” Nox spoke up quickly. “Let’s just let it go and start class.” He just plowed on, telling us to open our books. I reached out and tapped Tsukasa’s shoulder, leaning in towards him.

“Thank you,” I whispered. He smiled.

“Don’t mention it.” I’m so lucky to have Tsukasa in my class. But now I see what Dorian was talking about. People seem like they can be really snide here.

“All right, today we’re working on defensive magic,” Nox announced. “I know it doesn’t seem as cool as offensive magic, but if you can’t use defensive magic, you’re as good as dead in a fight. We’ll be going elemental shields today, specifically water. Can someone tell me what you’d call water when casting a spell?” Everyone’s eyes dropped to the ground, trying to avoid Prefect Nox’s eyes. “Fandamilia?”

“Uh… Aqua?” The girl with green curls answered, uncertain.

“Correct. Keep up the hard work, Millie.” She beamed. So that’s Fandamilia. She didn’t look at all like I imagined. She didn’t look at all like the mean girls from movies. “For today’s class, you’ll have to create a shield large enough to protect yourself and your partner. I’ll fire attacks at you and let’s hope your shields are strong enough. Get in pairs and then get in horizontal line from that wall to this one.”

My stomach knotted itself. The shield didn’t sound bad enough, but Prefect Nox testing it? That was what worried me. I looked around me, looking for a partner.

“Tsukasa? Do you want to partner up?” I asked him.

“I’d love to.” Again, he gave me one of those lovely warm smiles. Even though I was nervous about the assignment, seeing him smile settled my nerves. “Um… Would you like me to go first?”

“Oh, um, no, I can go first if you like,” I replied.

“All right. That’s fine with me.” I just nodded. We got in line and Prefect Nox, of course, went to the end closest to us. I could throw up then and there. I stared at the textbook, hoping that somehow, it’d help me conjure the shield easier. Student after student had success and my nausea got worse and worse. Prefect Nox arrived to us and I took a deep, shaky breath.

“O water, protect us from harm! Suctum aqua!” I waved my hand a large shield of still water appeared. I… I did it?! I’d never tried this spell before. Thank goodness it worked.

“That’s a great size,” Nox commented. “But let’s see if it’ll hold up. Sagitta aqua!” Several arrows of water easily pierced my shield and splashed into me. I coughed, letting the water drip out of my mouth. My shield dissipated. “Your shield looked a little thin. Next time, make it a little thicker and maybe try getting the water to swirl. That should help deflect some attacks,” he told me.

“Thank you.” _I’m the first person in class to fail…_ _I can’t cry. I’m not going to be the first person to fail AND the person who cried in class on their first day._

“水! (Mizu!)” Tsukasa quickly drew symbols into the air and a shield appeared. It was much smaller than anyone else's and Prefect Nox frowned.

“I think it needs to be bigger, but I’ll go ahead and attack. Sagitta aqua.” Again, water arrows went flying to Tsukasa. He lifted his shield but as soon as the arrows hit it, the whole thing broke and sprayed water on not just him, but me and the girl on his other side.

“I’m sorry, you two,” he said. He pulled out a handkerchief and gave it to me.

“Next time, make your shield bigger and keep it together. A shield that breaks means you’re going to get some serious injuries,” Nox critiqued.

“Thank you.” Prefect Nox went over to Lyza and I saw Tsukasa’s shoulders slump ever so slightly. As awful as it was, part of me was relieved I wasn’t the only one that failed. But at the same time, I felt bad that Tsukasa had failed too. I put my hand on his bony shoulder, giving it a light squeeze. He turned to me and mirrored me, putting his hand on my shoulder and giving it a reassuring squeeze. Maybe we were going to be okay. A few more minutes passed and Prefect Nox reached the end of the line.

“All right, those were all good first tries,” Nox announced. “Let’s do this again and keep in mind my constructive criticism.” I almost gagged. _Again?! We have to do this all over_ _again?!_

We didn’t improve much and by the time we were back in our seats, I was ready to take a nap. _Who knew classes would be so exhausting?_

“Good work today, guys. Here’s today’s results,” Nox said. He snapped his fingers and a large list appeared on the blackboard. My stomach dropped to the floor as I read the names and realize what it was. It was our names and our scores for the day. I kept reading and saw mine and Tsukasa’s names at the bottom of the list with only a few points each. Some kids were cheering, others gloating about how well they did. I just wanted to disappear into thin air.

“Are you okay?” Tsukasa’s gentle voice was in my ear, his hand on my shoulder.

“No. Why are our scores up on the board?”

“It’s like that for every class. It’s supposed to motivate us, but I think it’s kind of terrible.”

“No kidding.”

The rest of my classes didn’t go that well and by the time the final bell rung, I was ready to go back to my room and die in peace. Everyone was pretty quick to leave the classroom as I sluggishly put my stuff away.

“Hey. Are you okay?” Tsukasa inquired. I just sighed.

“Yeah, I guess. I didn’t know things were going to be so intense here,” I replied.

“I know what you mean. These classes are hard and on top of that, they make it like a competition.”

“I don’t see how this makes anyone motivated.”

“Everyone here is kind of competitive. Well, most everyone.” Somehow, that didn’t make things better. “If you’re worried about your grades, how about we go study together?” Tsukasa suggested. I didn’t know how much he could help me, but it’d be nice to suffer with someone else.

“Sure. We can go study for a while.” _Wallowing in self-pity w_ _ill_ _have to wait. After all, I guess I d_ _o_ _have to study hard so I’d be accepted as an official student._

The halls were already cleared of students, but in the distance I could hear faint chatter coming from near the entrance of campus. _Hm. I wonder what that is?_ Tsukasa lead me down the hall and to two large wooden doors.

“I’m sure there will be some study rooms open for us,” Tsukasa said as he held the door open for me.

The library was massive. Shelves lined the walls and were standing proudly on the floor like soldiers, lined up perfectly and precisely. Tables were shoved into any space they could find that was out of the way of traffic. Tsukasa lead me through the stacks and to the back wall. Several doors lined the walls. Next to them were windows looking in to empty rooms. Again, Tsukasa opened a door and motioned for me to go in.

“Thank you.” _What a gentleman._ It was a cozy little room. There was a blackboard in addition to the table and chairs. Tsukasa took the seat across from me and started pulling his textbooks out.

“So, what do you want to study?” he asked.

“Uh…” _“Everything” would be a bad answer, wouldn’t it?_ “Gosh, I don’t know… Is there anything you want to work on?”

“I don’t have a preference,” he responded. _Great. More pressure._ I know he was probably trying to be polite, but I had no idea what to do.

“Um… Man, I really don’t know. I feel like I have to work on everything,” I sighed, leaning back in my chair, arms crossed.

“We can study whatever you need to. I’ve got all night.”

“I don’t want you to ignore what you need to do for me, though. My failures shouldn’t cost you anything.”

“Hey, don’t say that.” He leaned in closer to me. “I’m not sacrificing what I need to do. We’re working together on things we both need. This is a two-way street.” Something about his words reassured me. It sounded so mature and certain. Well, maybe mature wasn’t the right word. Perhaps authoritative was a better term. He looked so strong in that moment. But in a second, he quickly looked away. “Sorry, was that weird? My brother says it all the time so I thought it would be comforting…”

“Pft… Haha!” The switch from confident to shy struck me as funny. But at the same time, it was so sweet he’d try comforting me when we hardly knew each other.

“It _was_ comforting. Thank you, Tsukasa. I really appreciate it,” I told him. We shared smiles. All of a sudden, the crescent moon brooch on his cloak start to glow.

“What’s with your brooch?” he asked. Huh?

“Is mine glowing too?!” I asked.

“Wait, mine’s glowing?!”

We looked to our brooches and saw them glowing brighter and brighter until the light seemed to shoot out of the brooches. Sparkles mixed it the air and exploded like a firework, beautiful and fleeting.

“That’s pretty, but… What is that?” I asked him. He shrugged.

“Were you trying to cast something?”

“No. Were you?”

“No.” _Then what was it?_ “I know sometimes if you sing well enough, magic crystals can form in the air. Maybe this is something like that? With friendship?” _Friendship… Does he see me as a friend? … I suppose I see him as a friend…_

“I… I guess it is.” Something about this situation felt so odd. It didn’t feel threatening or something, or bad, but still. I wondered what that magic was all about. Even as Tsukasa and I shared a smile over our new friend status, I still couldn’t help but wonder what had happened.


	3. Buddies?!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukasa and I are Buddies, apparently. We have another hard day of classes and to be honest, I'm terrified what our Buddy status means for us when it comes to grades.

I went to bed, the incident with Tsukasa pushed to the back of my mind. Dinner with my dorm-mates was uneventful and somehow, I was able to fall asleep easily. But instead of my alarm waking me up, I heard loud pounding on my door. I dragged myself out of bed, trying to wipe the sleep away from my eyes. But really, as I shut my eyes, I just wanted to go back to bed. Around my blackout curtains was a faint ring of light. It wasn’t even totally night yet. I threw a robe on before opening the door.

“Prefect Nox?”

“Hey!” For what felt horribly early, he looks perky and awake. How. “Sorry to wake you up early, but could you come with me for a moment?”

“Uh, sure? What’s going on?” The worst case scenario went through my mind. Was I so bad at magic that I was already getting rejected from the Academy?

“It’s nothing serious. Get dressed and I’ll wait for you in the hallway,” he told me. _I suppose that’s_ _better than being rejected. But still, what’s going on?_ As soon as Prefect Nox shut the door behind him, I threw on my uniform and we walked to the prefect’s office together. Twilight was rapidly declining to night and by the time we got to the office, the sky was dark. Inside was Tsukasa, a guy with long brown hair, and a beautiful person with cherry-red hair sitting at the desk.

“Thank you for getting them, Nox,” they said.

“No problem, Headmaster.” _Headmaster?! Headmaster Randolph?! I better be on my best behavior!_ “Go ahead and take a seat between Rex and Tsukasa,” Nox instructed me. I nodded and sat between them.

“We haven’t met yet. I’m Rex Blanc. I’m your other prefect,” he said, turning and extending a hand to me.

“It’s nice to meet you.” I gave him my hand.

“I apologize I wasn’t able to give you a proper orientation, but welcome to the Academy,” Randolph said.

“Oh, don’t worry about it! Prefect Nox went over everything well. And thank you! I’m so happy to be working my way to being an official student,” I told him.

“That’s what I like to hear!” He smiled at us. “So, how about we get started on this little meeting? I called you and Tsukasa in here because you may be Buddies.”

“Buddies? Well, yeah, Tsukasa and I are friends. Is that… bad?”

“No, it’s not like that,” Rex cut in. “I guess I can’t blame you guys for being confused. We never told you what Buddies are.”

“I’m glad you’re friends. That’ll make this a lot easier. But Buddies is a special thing at this school. When two students who complement each other well, they’re made Buddies,” Headmaster Randolph informed us.

“We were made Buddies?” Tsukasa sounded uncertain and I didn’t blame him.

“Exactly,” Headmaster Randolph said.

“How does that work?” I asked.

“There’s special magic on this land. In all my years teaching here, I don’t fully understand it either. I suppose you could think of it as the Academy itself choosing Buddies,” Headmaster Randolph said. _I… I don’t know if that’s reassuring or mak_ _ing_ _me worried. What other sort of things is this school capable of?_ “Buddies are partners. If you and Tsukasa are truly Buddies, you two will be in it for the long haul, as they say. Your grades will affect the other’s and your fates are tied together.”

Okay yeah, I’m more worried than reassured.

“Can I see your moon brooches for a moment?” Headmaster Randolph put his hands out for us. “I need to check the Buddy system has truly been put into place.”

“Sure.” Tsukasa answered for us. We handed over our brooches and the Headmaster held his hand over them.

“Jukelle Sarabandom,” he said. Just like yesterday, our brooches glowed and sparkled. Headmaster Randolph looked so pleased with himself, but Prefect Nox and Prefect Rex’s jaws were on the floor. If I wasn’t so confused, it would be kind of funny.

“Is that why our brooches sparkled yesterday? Because we’re Buddies?” I asked.

“I don’t believe it… Buddies in the Night Class…” Nox said, breathless as if he’d been holding his breath this hold time.

“It’s not unheard of. But it’s rare,” Rex said quietly. “And it’s rare for Buddies to be formed so fast, from what I’ve heard.”

“That’s true,” Headmaster Randolph commented.

“Seriously?!” I exclaimed. But he didn’t seem to mind my outburst.

“The previous record was a week. But thanks to you two, it’s two days,” he told us. _Way to go, Team Tsukasa and_ _me_ _for being made Buddies the fastest, I guess._ “Congratulations, you two. It’s official.” He handed us our brooches back.

“What do we do now?” Tsukasa asked. I couldn’t really read his face. Was he happy? Sad? Disappointed? Confused? I couldn’t tell.

“Keep working hard and help each other out,” Headmaster Randolph told us with a smile. _“Help each other out…” That wouldn’t be so hard. Right? Then why did I feel so nervous?_

After being dismissed from the prefect’s office, Tsukasa and I hurried to our homeroom. I kept stealing glances at him. How did I really feel about being his Buddy? I enjoyed hanging out with him and he seemed like a sweetheart. But our fates tied together? Was that going to be forever, or just for school? What if we got into arguments? And what if-

“After you.”

“What?” I came to my senses. Tsukasa was holding the door for me, brows furrowed as he looked to me. “Oh! Sorry, I was spacing out. Thank you.”

I quickly went into the classroom. And as soon as I stepped inside a flurry of gray fabric and bright green hair came upon me.

“Oh my gosh, is it true?!” Fandamilia was on her toes, body almost vibrating and her eyes shining.

“W-what?!”

“You and Tsukasa! You guys are Buddies?!” she demanded.

“How do you know that?” Tsukasa questioned, frowning.

“Word travels fast here. Get used to it.” That guy with black and blond hair shoved past us, going to stand with Fandamilia. I’d put rudeness aside for a moment just to question how people knew. _I really don’t like that. I don’t like that at all. Did someone see us? Do people just know about these things? What happened?_

“But -” Fandamilia cut me off, squealing in delight.

“Oh my gosh, it’s true! You guys are so lucky! I wish I had a Buddy.”

“Yeah, I don’t think you need one,” the guy said again. Wow, okay. We’re being even more rude.

“Shut up, Viggo! Let a girl daydream!” Fandamilia demanded.

“Don’t you already do that enough?” he grinned at her.

“STOPPPPP!”

“Leave her alone, Viggo. She’s allowed to want things,” Tsukasa said, exhausted. Part of me wondered if this wasn’t the first time Tsuaksa had to step in for Fandamilia. Did this happen a lot?

“Don’t get so pissy. I’m just teasing her.” Viggo’s grin was gone and he was glaring at Tsuaksa.

“It doesn’t feel like teasing.” Fandamilia said quietly.

“Are we going to be hanging out in the doorway today?” We scurried away from the door as Prefect Nox came in. My feet tripped over themselves, sending me straight into Tsukasa. My face slammed into his chest and his arms wrapped around me, keeping me up.

“Are you okay?” he asked urgently.

“Y-Yeah. I’m fine.” As I gathered myself, I noticed Fandamilia giving me a sly grin and she winked. And then it hit me. _Oh…_ _Oh no this looks weird!_ _Wait, no, calm down._ _It’s just a hug… It’s no big deal…_ “Sorry, I didn’t mean to fall into you.”

“It’s fine. I’m just glad I was able to catch you,” he told me with a smile. _That smile… Just why was his smile so sweet and warm? And comforting?_ I righted myself and we hurried to our seats. Fandamilia gently grabbed my arm and gave me a sweet smile.

“You’re so lucky. I wish a cute boy would catch me when I fall,” she whispered in my ear. _Cute?!_ I glanced at Tsukasa as we sat down. I was always so focused on his smile, but she was right. He was pretty cute. He had nice features and beautiful eyes. His lavender hair looked so silky and was so nice and neat. Not to mention him standing up for others made him even more attractive.

“All right, are we ready?” Nox asked in a booming voice. No one said anything. “Okay, let’s start class.” He toned it down a little. “We’re focusing on defensive magic again. This time, you’ll be making shield made of earth. I hope I get more people raising their hands this time, but what’s the magical term for earth?” Fandamilia raised her hand. “Not you.” She slowly lowered her hand. I gave her a sympathetic look. “Oh, our new transfer student! Thank you for looking up.” _Ah hell._ “Well? What’s your answer?”

“Uh, terra?” I’m pretty sure that’s what it was. It was that or terrum.

“Correct. Keep studying.” _Oh thank goodness I got hat right._ “We’re doing the same exercise as yesterday, but with earth this time instead of water. Pair up and get in line.”

There was a low grumble as everyone got up, finding people to work with. I glanced over to Tsukasa and our gazes met.

“Partners again?” he asked.

“Of course.”

As we got into line, that nervous feeling started tearing at my stomach again. I remembered how this went yesterday and that same worry popped up again. Would things be easier today? Or harder?

“Are you okay? You look kind of stiff,” Tsukasa asked, leaning in close to me.

“Yeah! I’m totally fine!” Somehow, the lie came easy. Tsukasa opened his mouth to respond, but Prefect Nox came up to us.

“Who’s going first?” he inquired.

“I’ll go first.” Tsukasa didn’t even hesitate. _Did he do that because he knows I’m nervous?_

“Cool. Go ahead and cast it,” Nox nodded.

“土! (Do!)” Again, Tsukasa drew a symbol into the air. A large slab of rock appeared. The edges of Nox’s lips curled into a grin.

“Sagitta aqua.” Arrows of water splashed into the shield, but it held up fine. _Way to go, Tsukasa!_ Nox seemed pleased as well and turned to me. “All right, it’s your turn.” I took a deep breath. _I can do this. I can do this. I got this._

“O earth, protect us from harm! Suctum terra!” I waved my wand and a wall of gooey mud manifested in front of me. Nox wasn’t smiling, but he wasn’t exactly frowning.

“Unorthodox, but let’s see if it works. Sagitta aqua.” Arrows of water flew into my shield. While I didn’t get wet, the sticky thud of mud falling to the ground filled my ears. Now that odd expression turned into a frown. “It’s holding up for now, but if you had a barrage of arrows, this wouldn’t last long. Try to solidify the shield next time.”

“Thank you.” The back of my throat dried up and a dull ache crept up it. Prefect Nox just went down the line. My eyes were starting to burn. In my mind, I could already see our grades on the chalkboard, Tsukasa’s grade falling because my spell wasn’t perfect.

_Why do our grades have to impact each other? What kind of sadist made this Buddy system?! My failures shouldn’t bring someone else down! That’s just cruel and unfair…_

“Hey.” Tsukasa leaned over, whispering in my ear. “You’ll get it next time. I know you will.”

“Thank you… I won’t fail,” I said. I could do this. I just needed to work hard and get it right the next time.

“I know you won’t.” He gave me another one of those sweet smiles that made me feel so calm. Funny. No one’s ever been able to make me feel so calm before. He gently pat me on the back. I had to try harder next time. I couldn’t fail Tsukasa. For being thrown into this Buddy thing so early, he was doing so much for me already. I couldn’t let him down. I refused to let him fail because I was terrible with magic.

But even with that resolve, I knew this was going to be hard. This was all on top of trying to become an official student. I don’t know why Tsukasa and I were made Buddies, but I needed to do my best for him and myself.


	4. Studying Cut Short

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukasa and mine's daily study session gets derailed a bit when he feels sick after practicing defense magic.

The bell rang and I slumped forward onto my desk, groaning. _It’s only been three days, but I’m so_ _tired. I’m ready to take a nap. Or die. Either one._ _Even though I’ve been studying and practicing so hard, I can’t ever catch up to everyone else._

“Are you okay?” Tsukasa’s voice sounded concerned.

“No,” I answered honestly. Tsukasa leaned over and rubbed my back. Even through my clothes, I could feel the heat from his hand. It felt more nice than reassuring.

“Is this about our grades?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I replied. “And I’m tired.” Even after our study sessions, I spent hours in my room studying and practicing. If I was being honest, I probably wasn’t getting enough sleep on top of still trying to get used to this new nocturnal schedule.

“Do you want to cancel our study session for today?”

“… No.” It was a tempting offer, but I couldn’t slack off. Not when his grades depended on me.

“I don’t mind canceling,” Tsukasa said.

“No. I need to practice.” It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t exactly the whole truth. I didn’t want him to know I was worried about his grades. He was probably worried about them enough without me putting more pressure on him. Tsukasa sighed.

“… If you’re sure.” He sounded hesitant. Reluctant. But he just stood up, gathering his things.

_Have I upset him?_

Quickly, I shoved my stuff into my bag and I caught up with Tsukasa. There seemed to be two streams of people: one going back to the dorms and the other heading towards what I assumed was the Night Cafe. Not that I’d been there yet, what with Dorian cooking our meals and even packing our lunches. _I wonder when he gets any sleep with how busy he is…_ _And speak of the devil…_

As Tsukasa and I approached the library, Dorian came into view, sitting on the ground in front of the door, face in his hand.

“Uh, Dorian? Are you okay?” I asked.

“Hey,” Dorian responded. He got to his feet, still looking disgruntled. “I’m doing a favor for Nox and Rex. I can’t let anyone into the library.”

“What? How come?” Tsukasa asked.

“The hell if I know,” Dorian said with a shrug. “They just asked me to keep people out while they investigated something in there. Whatever it was, they looked pretty freaked out about it.”

“That’s kind of concerning,” I said.

“I’m sure it’s nothing that bad,” Dorian said. That… no. Just no. Was he just trying to play it down so he wouldn’t scare us? Nox and Rex seemed like really tough guys. If something scared them, it would probably scare anybody. But regardless of what happened, this meant no studying in the library today. Tsukasa and I said our goodbyes to Dorian before turning back the way we came.

“Uh… do you still want to study? We could go study at the dorms,” Tsukasa suggested.

“I think we have no choice.” We made our way to the dorms and up to the third floor where Tsukasa’s suite was.

There’s something interesting about seeing dorm rooms. There’s a special brand of uniformity to them. They have the same bed, same desks, same dressers, same lights, same flooring. But each person makes the room their own. Decorations are put up, layouts changed, personalities seep into the room. And Tsukasa’s is no different. There are photographs of him and an older guy who must be his older brother all over his wall. A pile of snacks rests on his desk and his bed is messily made.

“Sorry my room’s messy,” Tsukasa said as he started moving stuff from off of the beds to underneath them. “You can sit wherever you like.”

“No, it’s fine! This isn’t messy at all.” I sat down on the bed across from his. Tsukasa leaned against his bed after pushing away some spare blankets. “Um, I guess I should go over earth shields since yesterday was garbage.”

“All right, let’s do it,” Tsukasa nodded. I whipped out my wand and steeled myself. The faster I got this, the more I could hone this until it was perfect.

“O earth, protect us from harm! Suctum terra!” The image of a stone slab strong in my mind, I channeled my magic through my wand. A solid dirt slab appeared in front of me. Tsukasa smiled widely.

“Hey, that looks way better!” he said. His compliment made my cheeks burn.

“Thank you! Can you attack it and see if it’ll stay?”

“Yeah, of course. 水! (Mizu)!” Tsukasa drew a symbol in the air and a deluge of water came forth, slamming into my shield. I had to channel more magic into it, trying to keep it in place and together. My muscles tensed from all my concentration. Suddenly, the water stopped and Tsukasa exhaled, shoulders slumping forward.

“I think it’s good,” he said breathlessly. _Yay! I did it!_

“Now I just need to keep this up…” _Easier said than done._ Not to mention, Tsukasa’s magic was improving too. I was about to compliment him when it happened. Tsukasa flopped back onto his bed, staring up at the ceiling, his chest rapidly rising and dropping.

“Tsukasa?! Are you okay?” I hurried over to his bed. He nodded very slightly, eyes closed.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just a little winded and dizzy,” he told me.

“Dizzy?” _I get_ _being_ _winded_ _from magic_ _, but dizzy?_

“It’s nothing serious,” he tried to wave my concern away. “It’s just a part of my condition.”

“‘Condition?’” I repeated. _What condition?_

“I just need to lay down for a moment,” he said.

“That doesn’t sound like it’s not serious.” Now that I thought about it, on the day I moved in, wasn’t Tsukasa in the infirmary? Nox said something about Tsukasa scaring them. Has this happened before? As Tsukasa got on his bed, I sat at his feet. “Is there anything I can do for you?” I asked him.

“If you could hand me a pencil and my Magic Notes, I’d really appreciate it,” he said.

“Uh, sure.” Even though I had no idea why he’d want those, I got up and rifled through his bag for them. His things weren’t well-organized, but somehow I was able to find them.

“Thank you.” He sat up a little and started writing furiously. I tried to sneak a peek at what he was writing, but since it was in Hinomotan, I couldn’t understand it.

“What are you writing?” I inquired, trying not to sound too serious or nosy.

“I’m writing to my brother,” he explained. “I have to tell him whenever this sort of thing happens.”

“That’s kind of weird. Oh!” _Dang it! I need to stop blurting out things!_ But he didn’t look offended. At least, I didn’t think he did. He frowned, sad, but at least he didn’t look angry. He just looked resigned.

“It’s not…” He sighed, putting his pencil down.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean it in a weird way. I was just surprised,” I said, trying not to dig myself into a deeper hole than I was already in. The last thing I wanted was a fight with Tsukasa. Not just because we were Buddies, but because I didn’t want to hurt his feelings.

“No, I understand,” Tsukasa said. “I know it’s weird, but Azusa’s insistent on it.” Again, he sighed. He picked his pencil back up and continued writing. “It’s invasive, but there’s nothing I can do about it.”

With a flourish, he finished the note and sent it off. The sorrowful look on his face tugged on my heartstrings. _It’s really not a good situation to be, isn’t it?_

“Tsukasa… You don’t have to tell me, but what’s going on?” I reached out for his hand absentmindedly. It took me a moment to realize what I’d down, but before I could take my hand back, Tsukasa grabbed it. He gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go. His eyes avoided mine.

“… You’d find out eventually… And I guess this affects you since we’re Buddies…” he muttered. He took a deep breath. “I’ve always been sickly. Ever since I was a child, I always had problems with my immune system. I get sick really easily and I don’t think I’m ever truly healthy. I’ve almost died a few times, but I’ve managed to pull through. I had a really bad bout of cholera when I was fourteen and after that, Azusa insisted we move to Gedonelune because the medication I’m taking is readily available here and it’s hard to get in Hinomoto.”

Tsukasa’s arms folded in front of his chest.

“Azusa’s always been so busy working to support us that it’s always been our system that if I wasn’t feeling well, I tell him immediately so he can keep up to date with how I’m feeling. I was fine with it when we were younger, but now that we’re adults, it just feels invasive. I know he’s just doing it because he cares about me, but he raised me and he knows I’m always sick. I don’t see why he has to know everything.”

“Is your medication not helping?” I asked.

“Ugh, I don’t know. It really helped me the first few years I took it. I got sick only once or twice a year. But in the last year or so, I’ve been getting sick more often and I honestly don’t know if it’s actually doing anything. But Azusa keeps insisting I need to take it…”

His shoulders slumped and my heart sunk. I couldn’t begin to imagine how much stress Tsukasa was under. Not only did he have to deal with being sick, but he had to deal with his brother being overbearing. In that moment, a single thought occurred to me: _If I got good enough at magic, maybe I could help him. Was healing humans and animals really all that different?_

Once again, my hand reached for Tsukasa’s. But this time, I didn’t wait for him to grab it.

“If you need anything, I’m here for you,” I told him. His hand was so warm as it squeezed mine back. A small smile was on his lips.

“Thank you. That really means a lot to me.” A moment passed and yet again, I realized what we were doing.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I swear my head isn’t on right today,” I stammered. I pulled my hand out of his. Thankfully, he just laughed; he didn’t seem angry.

“I don’t mind holding your hand,” he said. For some reason, that made my stomach feel all fluttery. _I needed to become an official student now. Not just for myself, but to try and help Tsukasa. To help him relax and repay the kindness he’s shown._

Tsukasa and I decided to cut our study session short and after doing some homework together, I returned to my dorm. Like usual, the door to the suite was open. As I approached, I could hear talking in the kitchen. I poked my head in and saw Aika and Dorian. Aika sat at the table, flipping through a book while Dorian stood at the stove.

“… Okay, add the paprika and let it simmer for fifteen minutes,” she instructed him.

“Got it,” he nodded.

“What’re you making?” I asked, coming into the kitchen and taking a seat across from Aika. The two smiled.

“There you are! I was wondering where you were, what with the library being closed,” Aika said.

“Yeah, did you guys get your study session done?” Dorian asked.

“Aw, you were studying with your Buddy~?” Aika teased me. _Hm. I don’t know if I like that lilt._

“Well, yeah, of course I studied with Tsukasa.” Why was I feeling so defensive?

“You two are so cute together,” Aika commented. _“Cute together?!_

“What?!” I squeaked. My face was burning and I wanted to disappear into thin air. _Why are they being so weird?!_

“Pft… Don’t get your underwear in a twist,” Dorian laughed. “Aika just thinks you two are a cute couple.”

“We’re not a couple though?!” I corrected him.

 _“Yet,”_ Aika said with a wink.

“You guys are spending a lot of time together,” Dorian pointed out, the edges of his lips curled into a grin.

“Because we’re _B_ _uddies_ _._ We _have_ to work together. Our fates depend on each other.” I told them. But they kept smiling and it was clear my words didn’t mean a thing to them.

“Come on, isn’t there something romantic about being with someone that your fate is tied to? Right, babe?” Dorian looked to Aika, who was staring off into space. She perked up, looking around the room like a Meerkat looking for predators.

“… Huh? Oh, uh, yeah, totally,” she said. Dorian pouted at her.

“At least pretend to pay attention when I’m bullying someone,” he said. This was only going to get worse, wasn’t it? They really weren’t going to listen to the truth that Tsukasa and I were just friends.

“Y-You guys are too much!” I cried. I quickly fled from the room, Dorian’s laughter chasing after me.

“Dinner in an hour,” he called after me. I slammed my door shut, leaning against the back and sliding to the ground. My face felt hotter than lava. _Why are they like that?! Is making people embarrassed their hobby?!_

I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. It was obvious I was flustered. But why? I didn’t see Tsukasa romantically, so why did their teasing feel like a personal attack on top of just being embarrassing in general?


	5. Party Time!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukasa and I planned a casual study session, but Aika and Isabelle invite us to a night out on the town.

Saturday. It was my first weekend at the Academy and my first real break. I sat in my dorm room, organizing my clothes when a Magic Note fluttered in. I plucked it out of the air and gave it a quick look.

Tsukasa: I’m sorry about yesterday. Do you want to study today?

 _Again with the apologizing._ I quickly grabbed my own Magic Notes and wrote a reply.

You don’t have to apologize for that. But yeah, I’m down to study! Do we want to study in your room again?

Tsukasa: We can if you want! Or we can go to the Night Cafe.

The Night Cafe… Well, I hadn’t had dinner yet and I wasn’t feeling leftovers. I wrote back that I’d meet him there, although in my mind I wondered how much studying we’d actually get done. I packed up my things and hurried over the cafe.

It wasn’t nearly as packed as I thought it’d be, but I managed to score us a table as I waited for Tsukasa. It didn’t take long for him to show up and take the seat across from me. He looked a little pale to me and the dark circles under his eyes were obvious.

“I hope you weren’t waiting too long,” he said, sliding into the seat across from me. I shook my head.

“Oh, no, not at all! I just got here.”

“That’s good,” he sighed in relief. He knocked on the table and plate of sandwiches and a milkshake appeared. I quickly got my own food.

“How are you feeling?” I asked, grabbing my bowl of soup.

“A lot better, thanks,” he told me. “So, what do you want to focus on tonight?”

“Why don’t you pick what we start with? I feel like we’re always doing what I want.”

“Well, you have to worry about getting accepted here and catching up with everyone.”

“Didn’t someone say this was a two-way street?” I asked with a teasing smile. Tsukasa groaned, leaning back in his seat, making me giggle. His face was flushed ever so slightly.

“Why would you use my own words against me?” he demanded. Even with traces of exasperation on his face, the tone in his voice was teasing.

“Because why not?” I said wit ha shrug. Tsukasa laughed.

“All right, uh, how about we go over some magic theory?”

“Sounds good to me.”

“What sounds good?” a familiar voice asked. At the end of our table stood Isabelle and Aika, both dressed up and makeup impeccably done.

“You guys are dressed up,” I commented.

“Indeed we are! What’re you guys up to? What’s with all the books?” Isabelle asked, picking up my spells textbook.

“We’re studying,” Tsukasa told her. Aika frowned, a sour look on her face.

“Studying? But it’s Saturday,” she said.

“I have to worry about my Judgment, remember?” I reminded her.

“Yeah, but you two have been having hours-long study sessions after school every day. Don’t you think you deserve a real break?” she asked. Well, she wasn’t completely wrong. Sure, I wanted a break. But with Judgment, my grades, and trying to be better for Tsukasa, when could I take a break?

“We were going to invite you two to come with us, but it’s okay if you feel like you need to keep studying hard,” Isabelle said, putting my textbook back down on the table.

“Where are you guys going?” I asked.

“To a club. We were going to go last night, but it didn’t work out,” Isabelle said.

“Why don’t you guys take a break tonight and you can pick up studying tomorrow night?” Aika suggested.

“I’ve never been to a club before, but I don’t think I’m old enough to go to them. It’s twenty and older, right?” Tsukasa asked.

“Oh, don’t worry about that!” Aika replied cheerfully. “The place we know doesn’t card! You’ll be fine!” Tsukasa and I glanced at each other. As fun as it sounded, could I really afford to go? And was Tsukasa really up for it?

“… I mean, it sounds like fun…” Tsukasa relented. _Well, if he’s feeling up for it… And I make up for lost time tomorrow…_

“Okay, we’ll come with,” I said. Isabelle clapped her hands together, bouncing just a little bit.

“Great!” she squealed. “How about we leave in half an hour? Is that enough time for you guys to finish eating and get changed?”

“Change?” I raised an eyebrow.

“You’re not going to a club in that. If you need to borrow clothes, you’re more than welcome to,” Isabelle said. Now it was Aika’s turn to excitedly bounce.

“Oooh, a make-over! This is going to be fun!” she said. Somehow, this didn’t excite me. _… What did I just sign myself up for?_

* * *

The night was pitch black, but the neon sign of the small hole-in-the-wall club provided some strong light against the few gas lamps. Isabelle, Aika, Fandamilia, and Hiro didn’t hesitate to go inside. Tsukasa and I trailed after them, but my steps slowed. It… To be as nice as possible, it didn’t look like it was entirely up to any safety code.

“Are you all right?” Tsukasa asked, leaning in towards me, voice hushed.

“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just… A little weird. I don’t know.”

“Do you want to head back?” I thought about it. Even though we should be back studying, I’d already wasted time letting Aika and Isabelle treat me like their doll and we’d walked all this way. Time was already gone and deep down, I didn’t want to upset anyone by going home before we’d even done anything.

“No…” Tsukasa nodded and gave my shoulders a squeeze.

“Whenever you want to go back, let me know and we’ll leave,” he told me. My heart melted just a little.

“Thank you.”

We hurried after the others. The place was just as dingy on the inside as it was on the outside. Everything looked like it was on the verge of collapse; even in the low lighting, I could see everything looked rickety. Isabelle and Aika were already sitting at a booth, waving us over.

“I thought you guys got lost for a moment,” Isabelle said with a chuckle.

“Sorry, I had to stop and tie my shoes,” Tsukasa lied smoothly. He slid into the booth next to Aika. I slid in next Tsukasa. Isabelle gave us both a teasing smile.

“It’s cute the couple’s sitting together,” she teased us. My face was on fire, heat burning at my skin.

“Couple?!” I squeaked. _Dang it! First Dorian, now Isabelle?!_

“We, um, we’re not together,” Tsukasa said weakly, a nervous laugh following his words. Isabelle just leaned forward, hands cupping her face.

“But you could be,” she pointed out.

“I brought shots!” Fandamilia’s announcement made Isabelle straighten out, but she still had that teasing smile on her face. Fandamilia’s peppy attitude quickly shooed away the tension in the air. Hiro trailed behind her, another tray in his hands and looking absolutely exhausted. She hummed to herself as she passed out the shot glasses. She plopped down beside me as I cautiously picked up the glass.

“Hiro, hand me the tray!” Fandamilia commanded him. He did it, no questions or protests. “I wasn’t sure what to get everyone, so I made some educated guesses.” Whereas the green-tinted liquid in my shot glass looked disgusting, the chocolate milkshake-looking drink she placed in front of me looked amazing.

“Well, let’s get the party started! Cheers!” Aika said, holding her glass up.

“Cheers!”

One sip of the green liquid and I wanted to vomit it back up. It was a hard taste to describe and in the moment, the closest I could think of was acid, but if it had been dead and rotting for several months. I gagged and forced some of it down before grabbing my chocolate drink. The sweetness of that saved my taste buds. Fandamilia giggled.

“Do you hate tequila?” she grinned.

“Is that what’s in the shot glass?” I asked.

“Yeah. You’re not supposed to taste the shot though. You just throw it back,” she told me.

“It’s in my mouth, I can’t just not taste it,” I retorted. Isabelle reached over and grabbed my half-full shot glass and quickly downed it. Fandamilia just shrugged, grabbing her drink that looked like muddy water.

“You’ll get the hang of it eventually!” she said in what I assume was supposed to be an encouraging way. As if I’d ever drink this garbage again. “I got good at it pretty young, so it’s second nature to me.” I didn’t know if I had the mental capacity right then to unpack all of that.

“Do you like your… milkshake?” Tsukasa asked me, looking uncertain at what to call the actually decent drink Fandamilia got me.

“It’s called a mudslide but yeah, it’s basically an alcoholic milkshake,” she explained.

“You can’t really tell,” I commented as I took a sip.

“That’s good, because there’s a lot in it,” Fandamilia said. I choked at her words mudslide trickling down my chin. Surely she had to be joking? There was a slight alcohol taste to it, but I really couldn’t taste anything else but chocolate and cream in it. Tsukasa grabbed a napkin and wiped up my face for me.

“Are you all right?” he asked, a grin on his face.

“Y-Yeah, I’m fine.” The butterflies in my stomach decided this would be a great time to start acting up. I quickly looked away from him, taking another sip of my drink.

We all chatted as we drank. I was nursing my drink as slowly as possible, but everyone else seemed to be chugging theirs down. I was only halfway through my drink when everyone got their third drink. Hiro and Fandamilia were debating as I felt Tsukasa lean against my shoulder.

“Are you all right?” I asked.

“Yeah, just a little dizzy,” he responded. I placed my head on his, enjoying the warmth from his body. This place was cranking the AC and here Tsukasa was, toasty warm. It’s like he knew exactly what I needed

“I really don’t think it’s that big of a deal. We have so many powerful wizards that it’s got to be people messing stuff up and being too scared to come forward,” Fandamilia was saying.

“Okay, I can see some things being that. But the stairs exploding? I don’t see how that could’ve been magic gone wrong. That had to be intentional,” Hiro argued.

“What are you two talking about?” I jumped into the conversation.

“The accidents on campus. It has to be someone purposefully doing it,” Hiro said.

“Aw, you two look awful cute all snuggled up like that!” Fandamilia changed the subject, smiling widely at Tsukasa and I. Hiro pouted.

“Hey, don’t change the subject. We were in the middle of something,” he said. Aika laughed.

“Give it up, Hiro. No one’s been hurt so why worry about it?” she pointed out.

“Yeah, if someone’s doing it, it’s probably just pranks,” Isabelle shrugged.

“I haven’t really heard much about them…” I mumbled. _Man, I must be studying too much if I’m not aware of what’s happening on campus._

“Yeah, you look a little distracted,” Aika smirked as she took a sip of her drink. My cheeks were burning and I took a drink as the others giggled.

“Don’t be like that,” Tsukasa defended us. He sounded absolutely exhausted.

“You all right? You don’t look so good,” Isabelle asked with a frown.

“Ah, sorry. I’m not feeling great,” he admitted.

“Do you want to go back? I’ll go with you,” I offered.

“You don’t have to.”

“I don’t have to, but I want to.”

Tsukasa froze for a moment, but then slowly got out of the booth. We told everyone goodbye and then we started the long trek back to campus. The night air was crisp and I was thankful Tsukasa and I were walking shoulder to shoulder with each other; I could steal some warmth from him. He put his arm around my shoulder and I put mine around his waist. He leaned against me.

“We’ll get back to campus before you know it, but if you need us to sit down and take a break, let me know,” I told him, trying to reassure and comfort him. I knew we shouldn’t have come out partying tonight. We should’ve just gone back to our dorms after eating at the Night Cafe.

“Thanks,” he said weakly.

The night was silent as we walked through the deserted town. It was too late for big crowds and too early for morning people to be out and out. It was nice, though. In this moment, this world belonged only to Tsukasa and I.

“I’m sorry.” He spoke up suddenly, breaking the silence.

“What? You don’t have anything to apologize for,” I told him.

“I cut tonight short -”

“No, you didn’t,” I interrupted him. Again, silence reigned. But only for a few short moments.

“I don’t want to drag you down.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

“You… What? You’re not dragging me down at all. I left the club because I wanted to.”

“But if I wasn’t feeling bad, you could’ve stayed longer.”

“I was tired of partying and besides, I’d rather spend time with you.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, I realized how that sounded. “I, uh, I-I mean -”

“That means a lot to me. I… I worry you’ll get fed up with me,” he said quietly.

“What? Why would you think that?” I knew he must’ve been hurting, but his words still stung.

“I know I’m not the best with magic and you’re already so stressed about your Judgment. And with my health… I know I’m not the best Buddy for you.”

“Don’t say that! You’re the perfect Buddy for me. How many times have you boosted me up? How many times have you stopped to help me with things I don’t get? You’re not dragging me down at all.”

“Do you really feel like that?” He glanced over to me, hope shining in his eyes.

“Of course I do! I’d never lie to you.” If we were being honest with each other, maybe it was time for me to let everything out… “If I’m being honest, I’m the one causing problems in this relationship.”

“You what?”

“I’m so bad at magic and I see every day how I’m dragging your grades down, and then we study for so long and I know that tires you out, and -”

“Sure, it can be tiring, but I do it because I want to. You’re my Buddy, but you’re also my friend and I like studying with you. And we’re both bad at magic. You aren’t affecting my grades that much. We’re in the same boat,” Tsukasa told me. I wanted to believe him. I wanted to believe him so badly.

“Are you sure?”

“Of course I am,” he said with a sweet smile. As relieved as I felt that he didn’t see me as a burden, I still wasn’t sure how to feel about myself. I still felt like one, but the fact Tsukasa didn’t see me as one. “I’ll tell you what, how about we start being more open with each other?”

“More open?”

“Maybe if we lay everything bare, we can nip future problems like this in the bud. I don’t want you to feel like you’re a burden to me,” he told me.

“And I don’t want you to feel like you’re a burden to me,” I replied.

“Maybe if we talk things out, we can avoid stuff like this in the future. I know it’s a lot to ask, but I’m willing to open myself up to you,” he said.

“I…” Why was my heart pounding in my chest? I nodded. “Let’s do it, then.” Somehow, I couldn’t get the right words out. I wanted to tell him that I wanted to open myself up to him, but the words wouldn’t come out. _Maybe I had more work cut out for me than I anticipated…_

The rest of the walk was peaceful, but tiring. I was ready to drop by the time we entered the dorm building. We were about to get into the elevator when a deep voice I didn’t recognize called out.

“Hey, hold on a minute, Tsukasa.”

We turned around to see a tall man with brown hair and bright blue eyes. His face looked so similar to Tsukasa’s that although we’d never met, it was easy to tell who he was.

“Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for an hour,” Tsukasa’s brother Azusa demanded, frowning.

“I’m sorry. I went out drinking with some friends,” Tsukasa informed him. His whole demeanor changed. He straightened his back and his arm over my shoulder felt more relaxed. Like he was trying to act like everything was fine.

“I see.” Azusa’s gaze turned to me and he gave me a stilted smile. “I’m Azusa, Tsukasa’s older brother.”

I quietly introduced myself.

“Tsukasa, I wasn’t aware you were out with someone,” he said, glancing back at Tsukasa. I was all too aware of how close Tsukasa was to me with his brother’s eyes burning into us.

“We were out with a group of friends. We just came home early,” Tsukasa replied nonchalantly. Azusa still had that creepy smile on his face, like he didn’t believe us. As much as I was unnerved, I did wonder if Azusa was just good at detecting lies or is Tsukasa lied to Azusa so much that he didn’t trust him.

“Well, I’m glad you’re back now. You really shouldn’t be going out and partying like that,” Azusa chided him.

“I know, I know.” I stood there, unsure of what to do. We took the elevator up to my floor and the air was so tense you could cut it with a knife. The elevator chimed and I opened the grate.

“I’ll walk you to your room,” Tsukasa told me.

“Thank you,” I replied, trying not to sound relieved to get away from this awkward situation. Maybe it was a little presumptuous, but it made me happy that Tsukasa offered. It was like he was putting me before his brother.

“I’ll only be a minute, Azusa,” Tsukasa said.

“Okay,” he replied curtly. Again, the smile on Azusa’s face seemed forced.

I hurried out of the elevator, Tsukasa right behind me. The hallways were still fairly loud, with people playing music and chatting, but we didn’t encounter anyone. In a way, it felt like we were arriving at another party rather than coming home. We got to my door.

“Thanks for coming back with me. I really appreciate it,” Tsukasa said.

“No problem. I had fun tonight.”

“I did too.” We smiled at each other and my heart fluttered. “I’m glad you’re my Buddy,” I added softly.

“I was thinking the same thing.” He was really something else, wasn’t he? I really was so lucky to have someone as kind as him in my life.

“Get some rest tonight, er, this morning, okay?” I corrected myself quickly. Tsukasa chuckled.

“Yeah, I will. You get some sleep too,” he told me.

“I will. Good night, Tsukasa,”

“Good night.”

Part of me wanted to invite him to stay a little longer and have some tea, or something, but Azusa was waiting for him. I went into my room and the exhaustion from the day hit me like a train. The sky was lightening, but it was still going to be a while until the sun rose. I closed my curtains and got into my pajamas.

After everything that happened today, I just needed a little rest.


	6. Nap Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukasa and I spend some time talking and getting to know each other even more.

Trying to catch up on studying since I took yesterday off was a bad decision. I couldn’t focus on the words in front of me. Concepts and words and terms and diagrams just blurred into each other. _Ugh, I can’t do this._ I shut the textbook and stared at the cover. It was just a little after midnight and admittedly, I was feeling a little restless. I’d been sitting all day, doing homework and trying to study. Maybe I just needed a little walk. It was late enough that I could freely roam the forest surrounding the entrance of the Night Class. At least, I probably wouldn’t get caught. I slipped out of my dorm and through campus, leaving through the graveyard.

The night air was a little chilly, but given Gedonelune was so temperate, it wasn’t too bad. I wandered into the forest, far enough away from the clearing so if someone was patrolling they couldn’t see me, but close enough I could still see that clearing. The forest was teeming with live, insects making noises and every so often an owl calling out. But still, it was peaceful. It was nice to clear my mind.

Suddenly, out from behind a tree, arms reached out from behind the trees and pulled me in. Reflexively, I screamed, but a large hand covered my mouth and muffled me. The other hand a strong grip around my waist, holding me tightly against their body. The familiar, masculine voice swore and let me go. Adrenaline pumping through my veins, I gasped for air and staggered a few steps away.

“Azusa?!” I choked his name out. He stood still, hands on his hips, a confused look on his face. It looked like grabbing me hadn’t made him break a sweat.

“You? What are you doing out here?” he demanded, brow furrowed.

“I was just out on a walk. What about you? Tsukasa said you work weekends.” As soon as the words were out of my mouth, one of those weird, fake smiles was on his face. Did he really think that was reassuring? Or maybe he didn’t know that his smile was so phony.

“I do, but I had tonight off. I was just taking a walk, too. I like exploring forests at night. Not the safest hobby, but there’s something about forests at night that’s cool,” he explained. It was plausible. It was reasonable. But something about it just struck me as odd. If he was working all day, wouldn’t he be too exhausted to take a walk? Not to mention the way he grabbed me…

“Why don’t I walk you back to your dorm?” Azusa suggested, voice honey sweet. “It’s not safe for a novice magician like yourself to be wandering around a forest at night. Who knows what creatures are lurking in the dark?” My stomach was churning, but I couldn’t turn him down, could I? I was all alone in the forest. How could I get out of this?

“Sure.” What else could I say? Could I really keep walking around? To be honest, I didn’t really want to be walking around the forest when he was. I let him pass me before following after him. As we walked back to the Night Class dorms and nothing happened, I tried to shake the strange feeling in my stomach. Maybe I was just too jumpy. After all, it was late and I had a lot of stress on me. And Azusa wasn’t doing anything. Maybe he really did just like walks and had more stamina than I. But the nerves in my stomach weren’t going away so easily.

* * *

“Here you go.” We stood in the mausoleum, right at the entrance of campus. I started to go down the staircase, but he wasn’t following me. I looked up at him.

“Are you not coming with me?”

“No, I should probably get back to my dorm. It’s pretty late,” he said. The dread in my stomach rose up again. I couldn’t fathom why he wouldn’t come with me and see Tsukasa, but again, I tried to push it from my mind.

“Thanks for walking me back. I’ll see you later.”

“Good night.” I’ve never gone down that staircase so fast before. Once I got to the bottom of the stairs, my body naturally looked back. Azusa hadn’t followed me down. I was completely alone.

_Man, that was weird._

But as I headed back to my dorm, I wasn’t feeling ready to get back into studying. After all, my walk had been cut short. _You know, I haven’t_ _heard from Tsukasa today. Maybe I should go check up on him._ Once I got to the dorms, it was a quick walk to his room. The door to his suite was unsurprisingly open and I knocked on his door.

“Tsukasa, it’s me. Can I come in?” I called out.

“Yeah, hold on a moment.” Just hearing his voice put me in a better mood. It was calming knowing that he was so close. There was a pause and then a click as the door inched open. Tsukasa was lying on his bed, still in his pajamas.

“I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

“No, you’re fine,” he said, shaking his head. “I was just lying down and resting.” He moved over closer to the wall and patted the mattress beside him. “You can lie down with me if you want.”

“S-Sure.” I took my shoes off and got on the cushy mattress beside him. Part of the bed was still warm from where he’d been laying. The butterflies in my stomach started acting up. Even though we weren’t doing anything, it just felt so intimate being this close to him and on his bed of all places. “How are you feeling today?” I asked him.

“I’ve been better. I was already feeling bad yesterday and my hangover isn’t helping me,” he told me.

“Oh, I didn’t even think of that.” I guess I was the only one who paced themselves. Although he didn’t look that drunk last night. He must hold his liquor well. That’s a shock.

“Neither did I. Azusa chewed me out for drinking so much, so I have a headache from him on top of everything else,” Tsukasa pouted. I had to fight back a laugh. Somehow, that didn’t surprise me.

“Was he here earlier?”

“Yeah, he stays here during the weekends, but he left early in the morning for work. His stuff is still here.” Tsukasa glanced over at the things piled on the spare bed.

“He told me he was going back to his dorm. I just got back from a walk and ran into him,” I said. Tsukasa raised an eyebrow.

“You ran into him? Where were you? He usually works from seven am to three in the morning.”

“In the forest. He said he had the night off and was exploring the forest.” I tried not to shiver, remembering the encounter I’d just had. Tsukasa just frowned at me, brows furrowed now.

“He didn’t tell me he had the night off,” he said. “But it doesn’t surprise me he was out in the forest. He’s always loved forests, even when we were kids. Work must be stressing him out more than usual. He only does it at night when he’s stressed.”

“I mean, you just said he was working… what is that… twenty-one hour shifts?!”

“It used to be more spaced out until we enrolled and he has to put in all his hours on the weekend. Money’s been tight since we came to Gedonelune and we can’t not work any less. I…” Tsukasa sighed. “I know how entitled this sounds, but sometimes I wish we’d never left Hinomoto. Azusa had a well-paying job back home and he wasn’t working so intensely. It cost a third of our inheritance to just move here and another third for my medication. We could’ve stayed in Hinomoto and he wouldn’t have to work so much.”

“Your medicine’s that expensive?!” Tsukasa had mentioned once off-hand that he and Azusa had important positions in noble’s household, but for his medicine to be so expensive and for them to be able to just afford it even blew my mind.

“Yeah. I mean, we got a huge supply from the money, but still, it’s expensive and Azusa said it would be near impossible to get in Hinomoto and it was pure, dumb luck that he managed to get it back home.”

“Why is it so expensive? What’s it made out of?”

“I don’t know,” Tsukasa shrugged. “I’m assuming it’s made of something native to Gedonelune and it’s expensive because of that and the fact it’s a shot.” I shuddered and he grinned. “It’s not so bad once you get used to it.”

“I would prefer _not_ to have to get used to it,” I replied, making him laugh.

“That’s valid.”

A lull in conversation.

“What’s Hinomoto like?” I asked. Tsukasa didn’t speak a lot about Hinomoto. I wondered what kind of place it was.

“It’s very beautiful. It’s not overly developed and we have distinct seasons. I miss rain,” he confided in me.

“Yeah, we never have rain here.”

“It’s weird. I don’t get why Gedonelune needs a weather system in place.”

“Me neither. I’ve heard if we didn’t have it in place, most of the time it would be overcast and rainy, so I guess part of it is to avoid flooding. But I think it’s really just to show off to other countries, or something.”

“That wouldn’t surprise me,” Tsukasa sighed. “Countries always try to one-up each other in weird ways except for taking care of their citizens.” It sounded like there was a story there but frankly, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know or not.

“You said it,” I replied with a nod.

“I don’t understand why Gedonelune would chose a weather system to show off, but okay, I guess. At least around the Winter Holiday, the school gets permission to have snow.”

“We do?!” That was news to me. I just imagined the Academy always had sunny weather.

“Yeah. It was nice getting to experience that stereotypical Winter Holiday with snow and everything. A lot of people in the dorms were talking about how they’d never gotten to experience that before, so it felt nice that that was my first experience.”

“‘First experience?’” Did it not snow in Hinomoto often?

“We don’t celebrate the Winter Holiday in Hinomoto. Well, some people do, but Azusa and I never did,” Tsukasa corrected himself. Oh. That explains it.

“Are holidays in Hinomoto that different?”

“I guess? I don’t know. We have a lot of different ones, but some western holidays have gotten popular over in Hinomoto. The Love Holiday, for example. We celebrate that now. But we don’t celebrate Halloween and we have Obon, which you guys don’t have.”

“Obon?”

“It’s a holiday where we honor our passed loved ones. There’s a big festival and everything. I’m usually more busy around then since Azusa’s birthday’s around then, but it’s a lot of fun, even if it’s a bit tiring.”

“When is your birthday?” I asked.

“It’s in October.”

“Oh.” _It’s too bad I already missed it._ _Maybe a nice, quiet birthday party would’ve lifted his spirits a bit._ “Next year, I’ll throw you a huge birthday party.”

“Oh, you will?” He turned his head to look at me, a wide grin on his face.

“Yeah! You better be ready to party hard.”

“I’ll prepare myself.”

Another lull in conversation, us just smiling at each other. I wondered where we would be when his birthday came around. Would I be an official student? Would I be able to spend the whole day by his side? Or would I have to only see him after classes when he could sneak away into town.

“Um… What about you?” Tsukasa spoke up suddenly, the smile on his face fading and his expression growing more serious. “What’s your life story? I know we’ve talked a lot about other stuff, but we’ve never talked about our pasts before.”

“Well, I lost my parents to illness at a young age and had to grow up without them,” I informed him. His face crumpled.

“I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay. It still hurts sometimes, but I try to focus on all the good memories I have of them,” I said. He nodded.

“I’m glad. I don’t remember my parents at all. I’d just turned a year old when they were killed.”

“Tsukasa…” So we’re both orphans. At least I got to knew my parents...

“It’s fine. Sure, I’m sad I never got to know them, but I feel detached from it, if that makes sense.”

“Yeah…” My hand reached over for his. There was no hesitation as our fingers interlocked. A soft smile grew on his lips. My heart beat picked up.

“We should do this more often. Hanging out without studying. Getting to know each other.”

“I’d really like that,” I told him softly.

“I like studying with you, but it’s nice to relax and spend time with you and not worry about memorizing techniques and incantations. I like spending time with you,” he said.

“I like spending time with you, too.”

We lay there, holding hands and staring at the ceiling. My eyelids slowly started drooping. The room was just the right temperature, the bed was so comfy, and with Tsukasa by me, I just felt so relaxed.

“I could totally take a nap right now,” I murmured.

“I was just thinking the same thing,” he laughed.

There was a silent understanding between us. The problems I’d had earlier and that strange encounter with Azusa were far from my mind now. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.


	7. The Love Holiday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Love Holiday comes out of nowhere and Tsukasa’s sick from class. I hope he’s feeling okay...

I sat in our homeroom, waiting for Tsukasa to get to class. The atmosphere in class was strange. Lots of people were writing Magic Notes to friends and loved ones, I assumed, and a few were on their phones, talking to their significant others. It felt extra lonely without him to talk to. Maybe it was just that weird sort of melancholy that happens when the Love Holiday comes around or maybe I’ve gotten so used to being with Tsukasa, but there was an ache inside of me. I just wanted to see him. Especially considering how he wasn’t feeling well yesterday.

The events from yesterday flooded my mind and again, my cheeks flushed a bit. The door to the classroom opened and I stood up a bit straighter. It was just Fandamilia, a small sack over her shoulders.

“Hi everyone! Happy Love Holiday!” she called out cheerfully. Only Clive, Viggo, and I responded to her.

“What’s in the bag, Millie?” Viggo asked, lazily pointing to it.

“I made special cards for everyone in the Night Class! I spent all day working on them!”

She started handing them out to everyone. A few people murmured thanks, but most just quietly accepted them. She got to us and her grin widened even more. I could see the dark circles under her eyes. “I made you guys special ones since you’re my best friends!” Fandamilia handed us three cards much larger than the other ones. Mine was coated in glitter and in surprisingly clean, elegant writing, the words “Thank you for being a great friend!” adorned the front.

“This is so sweet. Thank you,” I told her.

“You’re welcome! It’s the least I can do for you guys!” she replied.

“You’re so sentimental,” Viggo said with an eye roll. But even I could see the ghost of a smile on his face. And how he carefully tucked the card into his notebook.

“Thank you, Fandamilia,” Clive said, holding his own card. She beamed as she took her usual spot. I glanced over at his. A surprisingly well-done inky sketch adorned the front of it.

“Did you draw that?” I asked her.

“No, I commissioned a friend to draw it. I personalized everyone’s cards!” she explained. She pulled a few out of her sack. “I made some make up doodles on Isabelle’s, a Magic Board Game for Matthew, some demonology stuff for Aika and Dorian’s cards, that sort of thing.”

“Demonology?” Clive cocked an eyebrow at her and Viggo melodramatically slumped his shoulders.

“They’re super into demons. I thought everyone knew that,” Fandamilia frowned. “Do you think that’s too weird to put on a Love Holiday card?”

“Yes,” Viggo responded bluntly.

“I’m sure it’s fine,” I reassured her. “Uh, off topic, but when were heading over here, did you see Tsukasa at all?”

“No, I didn’t. I’m kind of surprised he’s not here yet. He’s always on time,” she answered and my stomach dropped.

“Oh, okay. Thanks anyway.”

“I’m sure he’ll be here soon!” she tried to reassure me. But the bell rang and the only person to come into our class was Prefect Nox. For some reason, I couldn’t get the sinking feeling out of my stomach. Why wasn’t Tsukasa in class today? Was he feeling even worse? Was he okay?

* * *

“Hey, come over here for a moment,” Rex called to me, motioning for me to come to the podium. The final bell had just rung and students were even faster to leave class than normal. I quickly got my stuff together and went over to Prefect Rex. “Is Tsukasa feeling all right?” he asked.

“I don’t know. He wasn’t feeling good yesterday and I wasn’t able to check on him during lunch today,” I replied.

“That’s too bad,” Rex lamented. “Could you go take his make-up work to him?”

“Of course.”

“Great. Thank you.” He handed over some paperwork and I slipped it into my backpack. We said goodbye and I started a beeline for the dorms. For some reason, the walk seemed so much longer, even though I was hurrying. Maybe I was just worrying too much. Maybe it was stress. _I just wanna see if Tsukasa’s okay._

As soon as I got in the dorm building, I saw Dorian, Aika, and Isabelle in the foyer. Aika looked like a corpse and Isabelle, although not as drastic, looked downright ghoulish.

“I didn’t know today was Halloween,” I commented. Aika just laughed.

“There you are! What’re your plans for today?” she asked me.

“My plans? I’m just going to go check on Tsukasa and then study, I guess. Why?”

“Well, every year on the Love Holiday, Rex and Nox ask me to pretend to be a ghost to scare Day Class students away from our turf. Apparently, fooling around in graveyards is very popular,” she explained, crinkling her nose in disgust at the last bit.

“We were thinking this would be an all-hands-on-deck operation,” Dorian elaborated. “But if you’re going to be spending tonight with Tsukasa, you don’t have to help.”

“I… Uh, I don’t know how to unpack this.” I didn’t even know where to start. People trying to go to pound town in a GRAVEYARD?! Dressing up as ghosts to scare them away?!

“The graveyard stuff or us pretending to be ghosts?” Isabelle was visibly fighting back laughter. “It’s really only Aika that pretends to do it since her magic is harder for people to detect and she can pull out all the stops. We’ll step in if needed.”

“No, I don’t want them to hang out with us if they’re planning on seeing Tsukasa. You two have fun, all right,” Aika smiled. I was left spluttering as she winked and moved passed me. Dorian smirked and Isabelle just gave me a little wave and told me she’d see me later. _They’re an interesting bunch. I guess I should make more of an effort to spend time with them._

Taking my chance, I hurried into the elevator and up to Tsukasa’s floor. I finally got to Tsukasa’s dorm room and immediately knocked on the door.

“Tsukasa, it’s me. Can I come in?” I asked.

“Of course!” He sounded more chipper than yesterday. Maybe he just stayed home today as a precaution? Or he was just skipping? The locked clicked as the door swung open. Tsukasa was propped up in bed, still in his pajamas. He looked paler than he did yesterday.

“Are you okay?!” I dropped my things and shut the door, hurrying over to him.

“I’m just feeling a bit under the weather, is all,” he told me.

“I’m sorry I didn’t come sooner. How are you feeling right now?”

“I’m fine…” The stern look on my face made the fake smile slip from his face. Tsukasa sighed. “Okay, I’m feeling pretty bad.”

“What’s wrong?”

“I’m just feeling dizzy and weak. And I have a bit of a headache today.” _Poor thing._

“Is there anything I can do for you?”

“It’s fine. I took some pain medication and hopefully that kicks in soon.”

“I hope it does too. I can go, if you’d like to get some rest,” I offered. I didn’t want to go, but if it helped him rest up and get better, I’d do it. It was probably the only thing I could do for him right now.

“No, I like you being here.”

“Are you sure? I don’t want to keep you from resting up.”

“No, I’d rather have you here. You always make me feel better,” he admitted sheepishly, a slight grin on his lips. Cute my heart melting into a puddle. A large, goofy smile tried to worm its way onto my face, but I did my best not to smile too goofy.

“I’m happy to hear that,” I replied. There was a beat and Rex randomly popped into my mind. Right! The make-up work. “By the way, I brought your make-up work for you. Where do you want it?”

“On my desk is fine, thank you,” he said.

I started going through my bag, placing my things on the floor to get to his packet. I really needed to stop shoving my things into my bag willy-nilly. But I guess that was a project for later. I felt Tsukasa’s eyes on me as I piled more and more things on the ground until I hit pay dirt.

“What’s that?” he asked, pointing to the pile of things I’d pulled out.

“The card? It’s from Fandamilia. She gave everyone cards today. You can read it if you want.” I didn’t wait for an answer, handing it over to him as I got up. His lavender eyes quickly glanced over it. “I’m sorry I didn’t make you anything for today. It totally slipped my mind the Love Holiday was even coming up. I’ve been so preoccupied on studying.”

“No, you don’t have to apologize for anything. I guess I was just surprised you got one too. For a moment I thought she had a crush on me,” her laughed. Something inside me twinged. “She had Viggo deliver mine to me.”

“Yeah, Clive, Viggo, and I helped her pass them out during lunch, which is why I didn’t come. She made one for everyone in the Night Class,” I told him.

“She’s a kind girl.” Again, deep inside me, I felt a twinge of irritation. “But…” His voice trailed off.

“Hm? What is it?” I inquired. He just shook his head.

“No, it’s nothing.”

“I won’t make you tell me, but I’d like to hear it.” We made a promise to be more open with each other. Maybe he just needed a little push. I placed his work on his desk and when I turned around to face him, his face was bright red.

“I… I was just worried someone else had given you a Love Holiday card,” he stammered, falling over his words.

“Oh, it’s no big deal! Some people give those cards to their friends and stuff, but it’s really fifty-fifty, so you don’t have to worry about me feeling owed something from you, or something,” I explained. This must be his first Love Holiday. Part of me felt bad if he was worried about giving me anything. Tsukasa’s eyes glanced to his blankets, face even redder than it had been a moment ago.

“It’s not that… I was just worried that it was a romantic card,” he mumbled.

“‘Romantic?’ Why would you worry… Oh!” The butterflies in my stomach started fluttering around in a frenzy and my heart started pounding in my chest. I could feel my face burning from the inside out.

“I-I-I uh… You don’t have to worry about anyone else,” I stammered. His face lit up.

“I don’t? Do you like me too?”

“I do.” Electric excitement was flowing through my veins and I was surprised that I even managed to speak.

“You do? … Oh, I’m so relieved.” He relaxed and I couldn’t help but giggle at his exaggerated movements.

“I was so worried you only saw me as a friend,” he admitted. I shook my head and reached out to grab his hand.

“I like you a lot, Tsukasa. I want to be your partner.”

“And I want to be your boyfriend.”

Even with all the jittery excitement and happiness flooding my body, there was just a smidgen of embarrassment. Tsukasa gave me that warm smile I’d come to love. He reached his hand out and I took it. Wordlessly, he moved over so I could lay beside him. We snuggled up together, his arm around my shoulder and my arm across his chest. We laid there, just basking in each other. Although my racing heart started to slow down, the giddiness inside me kept going and going.

This was a new chapter for us, and I was beyond excited to start it with him by my side as my boyfriend.


	8. Complications

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukasa does his best to attend classes, but he ends up cutting the night short.

“Good morning, everyone.” I walked into our kitchen, ready for a big breakfast. I was so giddy yesterday that I may have forgotten to have dinner. Aika looked up from her place at the table and smiled. Dorian was at his usual station, the stove. I looked around, but there was no familiar mop of lavender curls. “Where’s Isabelle?” I asked.

“She wasn’t feeling really good, so she’s staying home today,” Aika explained.

“Oh no. I hope nothing going around the dorms.” I shuddered. I didn’t want Isabelle to have the same thing Tsukasa did. Although, wait. How would Isabelle have it before me? I’ve spent the most time with Tsukasa. If anyone was getting sick, it would be me. _Maybe it’s something unrelated._

“I mean, if we want to be technical, dorms are a breeding ground for se-”

“Dorian, knock it off, they didn’t mean those kinds of infections. Jeez,” Aika cut him off. Dorian just snickered and handed me a plate.

“Thank you. But yeah, I’m worried something’s going around. Tsukasa’s not been feeling well the past few days,” I informed them.

“That’s a bummer. But I’m sure he’ll be fine. It’s just a little cold, probably,” Aika said.

“That’s what I hope too. I know he takes medicine to improve his immune system, but he’s been feeling ill the past few days,” I sighed.

“He’s taking what?” Dorian asked.

“Uh, I don’t know what it is exactly and neither does he, but it’s something to improve his immune system.” Maybe it wasn’t even a cold. Maybe his body was just out of sorts.

“You’re telling me he doesn’t know his own medication?” Dorian put his spatula down and turned to face me, looking incredulous.

“I mean, it probably has a name, but we were talking about it and he said he didn’t know what was in it, exactly. But he never said the name so I don’t know what it is,” I defended us. Aika frowned.

“I think I know what you’re talking about, though. We’ve ran into Azusa a few times when he brings Tsukasa his medication and it’s quite the set-up,” she commented, sipping on her cocoa.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“The bottles it comes in don’t look like they were meant for medicine. It honestly looks like he had some bottle lying around and put the stuff in there and topped it with that special syringe lid thing,” she explained.

“So you guys have seen it but you don’t know what it is?”

“I’m not a pharmacist and besides, when we run into Azusa, our first thought is to flirt with him, not ask him what his brother’s medication is. And I’m not the one taking it, so why should I know what it is?” Dorian retorted.

“Okay, I guess that’s fair, although I’m reluctant to say that,” I relented.

“You should check with Tsukasa and see if he’s had his dose lately,” Aika said. She glanced over to her boyfriend. “He usually gets it around this time, doesn’t he, Dorian?”

“Now that you mention it, I think you’re right. It’s about this time Azusa comes around with it. At least, he was hauling it around here this time last month and the month before that,” Dorian said.

“I’ll check in with Tsukasa on that. Thanks for the heads up, you guys,” I told them. Dorian smiled at me.

“Of course. We both want your boyfriend to be happy,” he said.

“B-Boyfriend?! How did you know?!” I demanded. Dorian just smirked and got his own plate of food, sitting at the head of the table.

“That’s my special power.. I’m in tune with attraction, love, lust, all of that. And there’s a lot of that between you two,” he said teasingly. I expected Aika to cut in, telling him to stop joking around, but she did. I glanced at her and she didn’t look irritated with him or grinning like she was in on the joke. So he’s serious...

“I, um, well yeah, we got together last night,” I informed them.

“On the Love Holiday? That’s so cute!” Aika squealed.

“Thanks. When did you two get together?” I asked hurriedly. _Please let them change the subject. My face feels like it’s going to melt at any moment!_ Aika and Dorian’s faces fell, eyes cast down to the table.

“Oh, uh, it’s a little complicated,” Aika said. “I don’t really remember when.”

“It was around the Winter Holiday, I think? We just celebrate it in November, but I don’t remember either. We were young when we got together,” Dorian told me.

“I had just turned twelve when we got engaged,” Aika added.

“You got engaged at twelve?!”

“I don’t know if you know this, but we’re both very dramatic people,” Dorian said. “We decided go big or go home. So we were engaged from that point on.”

“Not to mention… Well, I come from a pretty abusive home. Dorian was an excuse to get out of my home and get to safety. If I hadn’t run off with him, chances are I’d be dead right now. I don’t think my abusers would have killed me on purpose, but head injuries can go wrong so easily…” Aika’s voice was trembling before she trailed off. Dorian walked over to the table and gently rubbed her back.

“But you’re here now, and you’re safe. We did the right thing, running away,” he told her quietly. My heart ached for her. I got up and gave Aika a hug. Part of me wanted to ask Dorian if his backstory was the same, but I felt that maybe it’d be a bit too much. After all, this is the most I’ve ever heard about their lives outside of school.

“Um, did I come at a bad time?”

I looked over to the door to see Tsukasa standing in the doorway, a frown on his face. Aika quickly straightened up, pushing me and Dorian off to the sides.

“No, everything’s fine,” Aika told him. The fake smile on her face was unnerving, but I tried to ignore it, going over to Tsukasa and giving him a hug.

“Morning, Tsukasa.” Dorian was back in dad mode, smiling and getting up to go to the stove. Tsukasa’s concerned face quickly turned to a genial one.

“Good morning, everyone,” he said.

“Do you want some breakfast? We’ve always got enough,” Aika asked.

“No, thank you. I just came here to get my partner.” Tsukasa’s eyes wandered over me and he smiled. I couldn’t help but beam. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Dorian and Aika smirking.

“Go on ahead. I’ll take care of your dishes,” Dorian told me. I quickly thanked him and after grabbing my stuff, Tsukasa and I were off to class. His fingers laced themselves through mine, his hand soft and warm. I squeezed it. When I glanced over at him, his face looked paler than usual.

"How are you feeling?" I asked him.

"... Not my best. But since I missed yesterday, I wanted to try and make it through today," he replied.

"Could I convince you to just go back to your dorm to rest?" As much as I appreciated him trying to make it through classes, he really should’ve been in bed resting. But he just shook his head.

"No. I already missed classes yesterday. I don't feel like I can afford to miss any more this week," he explained. I mean, he wasn’t completely wrong, but that didn’t stop me from worrying.

"Okay, but promise me you'll go home if you start feeling worse," I did my best to sound fine. But really, I just wanted to march him right back to his dorm.

"I promise." He gave me a small smile and his hand squeezed mine reassuringly. I tried to push that worry from my mind and focus on other things. Viggo bickering with Fandamilia in class, working on my magic in class (and not failing the assignments!), sneaking notes to Tsukasa when professors had their backs turned. But every so often, the worry would bubble up and I’d steal a glance at Tsukasa. His face wasn’t getting any paler, but from his shoulders slouching and from the dead look in his eyes, it was obvious he wasn’t feeling any better.

Isabelle and Clive sat across from us during lunch, chatting heatedly and chomping down on fries. Even though Aika said she was ill, she seemed just fine. Maybe she just needed a mental health day. Tsukasa and I sat together, cuddling up as we ate. We were both quiet. I wasn’t in the mood to engage with them that much and surely Tsukasa felt the same.

“Clive STOP, you can’t keep spouting these ‘hot takes’ that make no damn sense,” Isabelle said angrily. Clive just rolled his eyes, but I could tell he was enjoying getting a rise out of her.

“I didn’t say I believed it, it’s just something I heard and it made me want to die,” he said.

“You’re still playing devil’s advocate,” she retorted. “Jeez. Saying you like catboys over foxboys isn’t classist... Tsukasa, are you okay? The topic’s not upsetting you, right? Because we can stop.” Glancing up at Tsukasa, he looked like a ghost.

“No, I’m fine,” he insisted. “I’m just feeling a little sick.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Maybe you should go back to your dorm and rest,” Isabelle suggested.

“I don’t know…”

“Tsukasa, you really should,” I insisted. Maybe he’d listen to us. He sighed, looking down at his bowl of soup

“You’re right. I should go rest up,” he admitted.

“Here, I’ll walk you back to your dorm,” I offered. I went to get up, but Tsukasa stopped me.

“No, it’s fine. There’s not a lot of time left before classes start back up again. I don’t want you to be late because of me,” Tsukasa said. _Oof…_ I didn’t want to say it, but he was right. If it was Nox’s class I could get away with it, but not when my next class was taught by Professor Schuyler. Tsukasa gave me quick hug before heading out. _I really hope he feels better soon. I’m not strong enough yet to help in any significant way._

* * *

As soon as classes were over, I sprinted to the dorms, straight to Tsukasa’s room. Throngs of students heading back made it a little hard to run, but I managed to weave in and out until I got to Tsukasa’s suite. I knocked on the door.

“Come in.” Even his voice sounded exhausted. As soon as the lock clicked open, I shoved the door open and hurried over to Tsukasa’s bed. He was lying down on a bunch of pillows. He had blankets piled on him.

“Is there anything I can get you?” I asked him.

“No, it’s fine.” He reached out for me and I took his hand. I sat on the edge of his bed. “What did I miss in class?”

“We don’t have to worry about that right now. You need to rest.”

“I can do two things at once.” He cracked a small grin as I sighed and pouted.

“You’re going to be the death of me,” I told him quietly. I gently pushed some hair of his eyes. He smiled back at me. “How are you feeling?”

“Bad.” At least he was being honest with me. “I took some medicine to get my fever down, but it’s not gone yet.”

“Have you taken your normal medication yet? Should I get Azusa?” I asked.

“No!” I flinched; he’d never raised his voice at me ever. “Er, you don’t need to get him involved, I already sent him a message.”

“… Okay.” If that was how he was going to be, then fine. Tsukasa sighed, eyes wandering over to the wall.

“… I don’t want you to worry about me,” he told me.

“I’m going to worry about you no matter what. I’m your partner.”

“I know. But…” He looked up at the ceiling. “I already told Azusa. It’s fine.” But there was something off in his voice. Something in my gut was screaming at me that he wasn’t being truthful. And as much as I wanted to believe him, I couldn’t find it in me to do that. “I’ll be right back.”

I moved out of his way as he got out of bed and left the room. He really wasn’t getting better. But maybe his medicine would help.

 _I know he told me not to tell Azusa, but he needs help._ I pulled out my Magic Notes and a pencil and quickly wrote a note to Azusa, telling him that Tsukasa really needed his immune system medication but also not to tell Tsukasa I sent him a message. I know we promised to be more open, but Tsukasa was sick. He had to worry about that and I didn’t want him to be angry about this on top of that. At least, that’s what I was telling myself. I sent the message off and shoved my things into my bag. A moment later, Tsukasa returned, looking even paler than he had left.

My heart ached as Tsukasa climbed back into bed. I carefully climbed over him and laid on the other side on the bed. We scooted closer together. One of my arms rested behind his neck and the other over him. Even through the blankets, I could feel his heat.

“I really hope you feel better soon,” I told him.

“I know. I do, too.”

“When you get better, why don’t we go on our first date?” Maybe I could lighten the mood a little bit. All this negativity probably wasn’t good for him, anyway.

“I’d like that. What do you want to do?”

“We could go into town and have dinner,” I suggested.

“There’s a really good cafe in Hidamari Market. We could go there.”

“Oh, that sounds like fun!” There was a pause. Tsukasa reached over and cupped my face, smiling warmly at me.

“I promise I’ll get better soon.” His voice was so serious it threw me off a bit. But I knew he just wanted to reassure me. He was probably frustrated with the situation.

“I know. I know you’ll get better.”

“I don’t want you to worry about me. I just want to make you happy,” he said, hand cupping my face. “I hope you know that.”

“I know. But I don’t want you to hide anything from me. You don’t have to put up a strong front with me, even if it comes from a good place,” I said. He nodded slightly.

“I really care about you.”

He leaned forward and in a moment, his lips were on mine. My body followed his lead, melting into him. His lips were soft and warm against mine. When he pulled away, I dived back in for another kiss. It was brief, but it wouldn’t be fair for him to be the only one initiating, would it? We pulled away again and I couldn’t stop smiling. My whole body felt jittery. There was a sweet silence between us, but I wanted to say something. I just wasn’t sure what.

“.. Um, I’m not contagious, by the way,” he mumbled.

“I wasn’t worried about that?!”

A pause. We burst out laughing, holding each other tighter. There was something exciting about this. We’d have so much more laughter and silly kisses and fun in our future. As the giggles quieted down and we snuggled, the butterflies in my stomach calmed down.

Slowly, Tsukasa fell asleep nestled against me. I was just about to nod off when a Magic Note came flying into the room. It got in my face and I grabbed it. _Did Azusa already respond? But it’s so early in the morning?_

But it _was_ Azusa. And the note was addressed to me.

> I’ll come over after my classes and give Tsukasa his medicine. It’s the very last dose of this batch and I’ll need help making a new one. Can I count on you to help?

Help. I could finally actually help Tsukasa out instead of just bring him homework and snuggle him. Not that I minded doing these things, but this was so much more substantial. Carefully, I removed myself from Tsukasa’s arms and wrote Azusa a quick response.

> Yes. I’ll help you out.


	9. The Truth

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tsukasa’s home sick again and finally tells me the truth about what’s going on.

> I’m staying home today. I’m sorry I can’t walk you to class. Love, Tsukasa.

That was the Magic Note Tsukasa had sent me this morning as I ate breakfast. My stomach had dropped to the floor when I read it. I was really hoping he’d feel better, but apparently not. Did Azusa not come over and give Tsukasa medicine? Was Tsukasa just really sick? Again, once classes were over and I’d run an errand, I knocked on Tsukasa’s door with my free hand; the other had a small to-go bowl of soup.

“Come in,” he called weakly. I quickly went in, placing the soup on his nightstand.

“Hey, how are you feeling?” I asked.

“Bad. But I took some painkillers, so hopefully my body stops hurting soon.”

“Is it everywhere?”

“Basically,” he pouted. I sighed and handed him the soup. His face lit.

“You didn’t have to get me dinner. Thank you.” He didn’t wait to dig it, carefully taking off the lid and grabbing the spoon. He said something I didn’t quite understand before shoveling the soup into his mouth.

“You don’t have to thank me. It’s the least I can do.” I got on the other side of the bed, laying back on the pillows. “I don’t want to push you, but have you had your medication recently?” Tsukasa nodded, putting his spoon down and swallowing.

“Actually, Azusa came over this morning and gave me a dose,” he told me. Relief flooded my body.

“So you’ll be feeling better soon?!” He bit his lip and stared at the blankets. The relief I’d just felt evaporated in seconds. “Tsukasa?”

“I… I honestly don’t know.” His voice was barely above a whisper.

“But doesn’t this medication help keep you from getting sick in the first place?!”

“It does. But… I really didn’t want to tell you this.” My heart stopped.

“Tell me what?” I demanded, trying to sound calm when I felt anything but.

“My medication does keep me from getting sick, but it’s real purpose is to keep my body healthy. But we’ve been running low on it and… It’s watered down,” Tsukasa admitted.

“It’s _what?!”_

“Azusa’s mixed it with fillers so I don’t run out, but now it’s so weak that honestly, I don’t think it’s really doing anything anymore.” My blood ran cold.

“Tsukasa, why wouldn’t you tell me this?!” I demanded angrily.

“I already told you that I don’t want you to worry about me. You’re so stressed about classes and your Judgment and my health problems were just piling stress on,” he defended himself heatedly.

“But this is serious! I’m thankful you’re trying to make me less stressed, but this is your health! I need to be in the know about this sort of thing! I can’t help you if I don’t know everything.”

“I know, but if there’s a way to keep you from being totally stressed, isn’t that something I should do?” he countered, eyes narrowing.

“I mean, in most cases yeah, but this is different. This isn’t getting us dinner while I’m working late.”

“I…” He sighed, clearly frustrated. I certainly felt the same.

“How about we just. Cool down for a couple moments and then come back to talk about this?” I suggested. There was no way we were going to get anywhere when we were both angry.

“Let’s do that.” Finally, something we could agree on.

The tension in the air as we slowly calmed down lessened and lessened. By the time I was ready to talk things out, I wasn’t mad anymore. I knew he just wanted to help me out, but I wish talking to him wasn’t like talking to a wall. I looked over to tell him I was ready when I saw him slumped against his pillows, fast asleep.

“Oh no, _Tsukasa…”_ I sighed. I was caught between waking him up and letting him sleep. After all, he’d been so sick. And besides, I had to go meet Azusa soon. _You know what, I’ll just come back._ I wrote him a quick note explaining I was going to be studying in the library and to send me a Magic Note when he woke up and placed it on his nightstand.

Azusa had asked me to meet him in the forest, at a large rock in the middle of the forest. He’d drawn me a map and with the moon lighting the way, I made my way through the forest. By the time I reached it, he was already there, arms folded and looking around his surroundings.

“Sorry I’m late, I ran to Tsukasa’s room to bring him dinner,” I told him. He didn’t look happy, but he nodded.

“It’s fine. Let’s head out.” He didn’t waste a moment, walking away. I hurried after him, falling into step with him.

“Head out? What we need isn’t here?”

“No, it’s just a little ways away. We’re going to the Spring of Unicorns,” he informed me.

“The Spring of Unicorns? What’s that?”

“According to a friend, unicorns live in his area and there’s a special spring they like.” I knew unicorns lived in Gedonelune, but I had no idea they lived on campus. You’d think more people would talk about that.

“So, uh, what are we getting at the spring? A special flower? Special water? What?” I asked.

“We’re going to get a part of a unicorn horn,” Azusa said.

“We… wait, what?!” I stopped in my tracks. Azusa stopped too and gave me a tired look.

“Come on, we don’t have all night,” he snapped at me. He grabbed my arm and dragged me along. Once I got my footing and kept walking, he let go. But it was as if I could still feel his hand around my arm. My head was moving fast, trying to figure out why we’d need something from a unicorn. And then it hit me.

“A unicorn horn?! But… wait… is that what’s in Tsukasa’s medicine?!” I squeaked.

“Yeah.”

“Hold on, but unicorns don’t live in Hinomoto.”

“Really? I, a Hinomotan, didn’t know that,” he said ssnidely.

“Stop being sarcastic, you know what I meant!” He rolled his eyes.

“When Tsukasa was sick, I used to go around to some shady merchants and see their wares. I was desperate for something to save him. One merchant managed to smuggle a unicorn in. Somehow, it died on the way over and I took it off his hands. It cost too damn much, but it worked, didn’t it? Tsukasa was healthy for years until…” His voice trailed off.

“Until what?” I prodded.

“I didn’t think getting access to a unicorn would be so hard. I knew they lived in the forests here, but I didn’t realize they only live on the peninsula the Academy’s on. I haven’t been able to get to a unicorn until this year.”

“So why do you need me to help? Do you need me to talk to the unicorn?” I asked.

“Sort of. They like the pure of heart and having you with me when we negotiate would look good. Besides, I’d rather make the medication in the Night Class lab. No one will bother me there.”

“I see. Is there anything else we need for his medicine?”

“I made the first batch with unicorn blood since it also has magical properties, but this time around since I don’t have a dead body, I’m going to skip it. It was just for extra strength, anyway.” I shuddered at the idea of Azusa butchering a unicorn, even if it was already dead.

“Does Tsukasa know what’s in his medicine?”

“No. He loves animals so much it’d be a bit of a slap in the face.” He gave me a look so sharp that it could’ve killed me. “You won’t tell him what’s in his medication.” It wasn’t a suggestion; it was a demand.

“My lips are sealed,” I said hurriedly. He gave me a smile and my skin crawled.

“Good.”

The trees gave way to a clearing with a sparkling pond in the middle. And lo and behold, a majestic unicorn had it’s head bent down, drinking from the spring. I’d seen horses before, but this creature seemed so much bigger than a horse. The air of grandeur around it made me stop in awe. There has a hand on my back and Azusa was forcing me forward. His message was clear.

“Um, excuse me?” I called out timidly and the unicorn looked up, looking at both of us.

“Humans? What are you doing here? Isn’t this a little deep in the forest for your type?” he inquired.

“Uh, we were looking for a unicorn to talk to.” _What was I even saying?_

“Then I guess you’ve completed your task.” He leaned down, continuing to drink.

“We wanted to ask a favor,” Azusa spoke up. The unicorn lifted its head again.

“A favor? That’s a bit arrogant to ask of a creature you just met,” he said. I mean, he wasn’t wrong, but he was being so rude to us.

“I know,” Azusa replied. “I wouldn’t ask this if the situation wasn’t dire. My brother’s body is slowly shutting down and the only medicine that can save him needs a very small amount of a unicorn horn.”

“Oh, so that’s it? You want my horn?” The unicorn’s eyes started to change to a deep red and I quickly shook my head.

“We don’t want the whole thing,” Azusa said quickly. “We know what that means. We just need a small chunk.”

“And what will I get in return?” the unicorn asked pointedly. We paused.

“… The satisfaction of knowing you’ve helped someone?” I said.

“Wrong.” _How is that wrong?!_ “How do I know you just aren’t going to sell it off?”

“That’s fair,” I conceded. “But please. We need to help his brother. He’s really sick and needs this medicine.”

“Come back in five years. If you’re patient, I’ll let you have a piece,” the unicorn said. Azusa twitched.

“Five years?! We don’t have that kind of time!” Something about Azusa changed. He tensed beside me and it was as if I could feel negativity radiating from him.

“If you aren’t patient, then you aren’t getting a piece of my horn, which I was generous enough to offer,” the unicorn sniffed. Yeah, it’d be generous if you weren’t being such a jerk about it.

“My brother will be dead in five years if we don’t get this horn!” Azusa cried. _Dead?!_ My stomach fell straight to the floor and a wave of dizziness hit me. No… He was being melodramatic, right? Tsukasa always said he was overdramatic. That was the case, right? Tsukasa couldn’t be dying. He couldn’t be. He was just sick right now and he was going to get all better soon.

“I will not give you anything unless you wait. I need to know you’re trustworthy.” The unicorn acted like he didn’t even care, like our words weren’t even reaching him. Did he not understand death? Considering unicorns were endangered, surely he had to understand?

“We… You…” Azusa’s fists were clenched and there was something disturbing in his eyes. The air grew still and in a moment, my body was moving.

“We’ll come back tomorrow to talk this out more, Mr. Unicorn,” I piped up hurriedly. My arms were around Azusa’s waist and not a moment too soon. A second before I grabbed him, he started to lurch forward.

“Let go of me!” he screamed at me. He was seething as I dragged him away. It was like trying to drag a rock around, but somehow, we got out of the spring. “Let GO!” He pushed me and I stumbled backwards. He was breathing heavily, glaring into the darkness. “That selfish piece of -” A long string of expletives left his mouth as he stormed forward back towards campus. I scrambled to follow after him.

“What are we going to do now?” I was at a loss. Maybe we could find another unicorn if this one was going to be a jerk? Maybe there was something else we could do?

“We’re going back tomorrow and we’re killing it,” Azusa announced coldly. My blood froze.

“Kill… Kill it?! Azusa, that’s illegal!”

“Yeah, no shit. What else are we supposed to do?! If we don’t get that horn, Tsukasa will die!” he yelled at me.

“But… !” I couldn’t think of what to say. Of how to fight back. Sure, I wouldn’t mind slapping the unicorn for being so rude, but killing it?! There had to be another way! Killing a unicorn was a serious crime. If we got caught… I shuddered at the thought. But at the same time, what if Azusa was right? What if this was the only way to save Tsukasa? I wasn’t going to let him die, but if this was truly the sole way of keeping him alive… I just didn’t know.

The walk back to the dorm was silent. If I wanted to break the tension between Azusa and I, I’d have to cut it with a knife. I stole glances at him every so often. He looked quietly furious, fuming at how things turned out. I didn’t blame him. I understood where the unicorn was coming from, but it was harsh. Maybe if we came back tomorrow, he’d change his mind?

“Meet me tomorrow at the same place, same time as tonight,” Azusa ordered me. “We’re getting that horn if it’s the last thing we do.”

“There really isn’t another way?” He made a noise of disgust, rolling his eyes. What Dorian and Aika saw in him, I didn’t know.

“There’s not! How many times do I have to tell you that?!” he fired back. I flinched and he just rolled his eyes yet again. “If you don’t want to help, fine. I’ll just do it on my own since you clearly don’t care enough about my brother.”

“Excuse me?! You have absolutely no right to say that!” I argued. “Sorry that I actually have a conscious about killing animals.”

“Oh please, like it’s a big deal. It’s the circle of life. How is killing an animal for medicine different from killing an animal for food?”

“Uh, are y’all okay?” I looked over to see Isabelle coming out of the dorm building, eyebrows furrowed. Azusa straightened up, giving her a smile and a laugh.

“Oh, we’re fine. We were just talking about food ethics,” he lied. Isabelle just gave him a skeptical look.

“Uh, okay? Sweetie, we’ve been looking all over for you. Dorian’s almost done with dinner.” She put her arm around me and pulled me away. “Later, Azusa.” She didn’t even wait for him to respond, taking me inside and up to our dorm. “Was he bothering you?” she demanded as soon as Azusa was out of earshot.

“N-No, not really,” I lied.

“I have no qualms about beating someone up -”

“What? No, Isabelle. I don’t need you to beat him up. We just had a disagreement,” I added.

“Okay. But if you change your mind…” She winked. _Note to self: don’t make Isabelle mad._ “But seriously, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.”

“I got into a fight with Tsukasa and… Oh no!” _I need to go talk things out with him!_ “Crap, Isabelle, I’m sorry, but I gotta go talk to Tsukasa!” I started running back towards the dorm.

“Uh, okay?! Dinner’s in like, twenty minutes!” she shouted after me.

“Okay!”

I ran through the dorm, hurrying back to Tsukasa’s room. Was he awake now? Was I gonna have to wake him up? How did I even really feel about this? His door was open and I knocked before poking my head in.

“Tsukasa?” I called out tentatively. He was still in bed, a textbook open. He looked over to me. “Can we talk?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry I fell asleep,” he said as he shut his book and moved his study supplies onto his nightstand.

“I’m sorry I left while you were sleeping. And... Look, I get it. I know you were trying to do what you thought was best for me,” I said.

“I know. And I’m sorry, too. I was frustrated and not feeling well and I took it out on you. I think we both were just doing what we thought was best for each other.”

“Yeah…”

“We still need to work on our honesty with each other, but I promise I’ll keep working on it. And I promise that that’s everything going on.”

Was that true? He sounded so sincere. Maybe he didn’t know he was… No, Azusa, was totally just being melodramatic. But what if he wasn’t?

“I love you, Tsukasa. You know that, right?” I asked. He chuckled and grabbed my hand. His hand was so warm in mine.

“I love you, too,” he said, and the butterflies in my stomach were in a frenzy. … I had to find a way to save him. No matter what.

* * *

A delicious, savory smell wafted from our kitchen and my stomach started rumbling. Isabelle, Aika and Dorian were already at the table, eating.

“Jeez, where have you been? You’re never late to dinner,” Dorian said, irritated.

“I-I, uh…” _Should I tell them about what happened?_

Meeting Azusa, the unicorn, everything came rushing back to me. Azusa’s claim Tsukasa would die without this medicine. Tsukasa and I making up. My throat felt tight and it ached. My vision got blurry before the tears started. I felt Isabelle’s arms around me and I could hear Dorian trying to backtrack, telling me he wasn’t angry at me, he was only surprised and bit worried.

Isabelle sat me down, keeping her arms around me and letting me cry into her shoulder. Everything spilled out of me: my trip with Azusa, Tsukasa’s health, the unicorn refusing to help us. My sobs quieted the more I spoke, and by the time I was done, I was just sniffling. Dorian handed me some napkins.

“I had no idea Tsukasa’s condition was so bad…” Aika said.

“I knew there was something up with him, but I didn’t think it was _this._ Jeez, killing a unicorn... _”_ Dorian sighed.

“I mean, I get it. If killing a unicorn was the only way to save my sister Felicity, I’d do it,” Isabelle said.

“Yeah, I get it too. But it’s not like it’s his only option,” he said. I perked up.

“There’s another way?!” I asked.

“Of course there is,” he answered. Isabelle’s eyes narrowed.

“If you’re thinking what I’m thinking, that’s a pretty big price to pay, Dorian,” she told him cautiously. “Not everyone is willing to make contracts.”

“Contracts?” I asked.

“Anything’s possible if you make a contract with a magical creature or a demon,” Dorian said.

“A demon?! I-Is that really necessary?” I couldn’t help but balk at the suggestion. But then again, if it was a way to save Tsukasa without killing anything...

“I wouldn’t say it’s necessary, but it’s easier to summon demons than magical creatures,” Dorian informed us. “Demons actively look for people who want contracts. Magic creatures generally don’t.”

“What, so you’re just going to go tell Azusa to make a deal with a demon instead of killing a unicorn?” Aika challenged him.

“It’s worth a shot, isn’t it?” he shrugged.

“Summoning a demon is so serious, though,” she pointed out.

“Uh, Tsukasa’s dying. I think this is a pretty good reason to summon a demon,” Isabelle said, folding her arms in front of her chest. “And also, it’s pretty rich that you -”

“I’m just saying Azusa is stubborn and even if Dorian suggests it, it’s not like he’ll do it,” Aika cut her off. “He likes us, but he’s also super stubborn.”

“But it’s worth a chance! And if Azusa won’t do it, then I will!” I declared. Aika and Isabelle gawked at me. The edges of Dorian’s lips twitched before he burst out laughing.

“Oh, you’re going to summon a demon? Well, if you need help, just give me a holler. Demonology is sort of my thing,” he told me.

“Don’t patronize me,” I snapped. “I want to help Tsukasa and if this is the only way I can do it, then I will! I don’t want Azusa to kill that unicorn. If I have to make a contract then I’ll do it!”

“We’re not trying to patronize you,” Aika frowned. “It’s just that making contracts with demons is a really serious thing. Sure, it’s so easy even non-wizards can do it, but it still carries a hefty price.”

“I don’t care. I’ll do it if I have to,” I told her.

Why did everyone look down on me?! I knew how big of a deal it was. But if I could save Tsukasa and the unicorn, of course I’d do it. I’d finally be able to do something for him. After so many days of being helpless and not able to do anything for him, I could finally do something to help.


	10. Hunting

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With little options, I have no choice but to go with Azusa and try and avert disaster.

> I’m not doing well, so I won’t be attending classes today. I’ll see you after class. Love, Tsukasa.

The Magic Note came in as I got dressed. My stomach felt so sick reading it. _He… He’s not ever going to get better, is he? Not unless we get that medicine. Or Azusa or I make a contract…_ What would I give a demon to make Tsukasa better? Heck, what would it even ask for? A lock of my hair? Some blood? My first-born child?

I walked into the kitchen. Aika and Isabelle were at the table, bowls of cereal in front of them. There was nothing on the stove and Dorian was nowhere in sight.

“We’re on our own for breakfast this morning,” Isabelle informed me.

“Where’s Dorian?” I asked.

“He’s looking for Azusa,” Aika said.

“Still?!”

“I guess?” Aika shrugged. “I don’t know. Dorian left around four this afternoon and he called me a few hours later and told me he couldn’t find Azusa so he was going to look for him.” My stomach knotted itself up.

“He might be at the Spring of Unicorns, but I don’t know why he’d be there now,” I told her. “He seemed so hellbent on having me help him and he told me we weren’t going to go there until four am.”

“I know Dorian looked around the dorms, but I don’t know if he’s checked the main building or not,” she said.

“He better not get too much attention,” Isabelle piped up.

“Dorian’s great a stealth. There’s no way he’s gonna be caught,” Aika reassured her. “I’m more worried about him not being able to find Azusa.”

“If anything, you’ll know where he is this morning,” I said, trying to look on the bright side of things.

“Yeah, but it’d be better for us to catch Azusa before he does anything,” Isabelle pointed out.

“I’ll call Dorian and give him the tip.” Aika quickly got up and left. Isabelle sighed, folding her arms across her chest.

“Are you really going to go through with this? Helping him… You know…” Her thumb made the throat-slitting motion.

“I mean, I don’t know. I don’t want to kill anything. But I don’t know if we can convince Azusa otherwise.”

“If worse comes to worse, Dorian can restrain him and you can make a contract with a demon or magical creature or whatever you want to save Tsukasa,” Isabelle said.

“We really depend on Dorian for everything, don’t we?” I sighed.

“Well, yeah. He’s taken care of Aika since she was yo- They were young. We joke about it, but he really does take care of us. He insists on it.” She took a sip of her coffee.

“Have you ever summoned a demon or a magical creature before?” I knew Aika and Dorian were into that sort of thing. Maybe Isabelle had experience with it. But she just gagged on her coffee.

“What? No. Summoning isn’t my specialty and the price of a contract is… Something that would open up a lot of mental wounds for me. How come?” she asked.

“I’m just worried if I have to do it. I don’t know what I’d sacrifice in order to save Tsukasa. I’d give anything to save him, but when it comes to picking that...”

“I get it,” she said with a nod. “It’s a big decision, you know? If you want my opinion, I’d do some research first and decide what kind of creature to summon first. If you do chose a demon, there’s a lot of subtypes. Incubi generally make contracts for firstborns or a bit of your soul, although I’ve heard some are really flexible with payment.”

“I don’t know if I’d want to summon a demon like that…” I don’t want to make a contract like that and besides, I don’t think Tsukasa would appreciate it if I made a contract like that even if I was willing.

“Personally, I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Azusa’s stubborn, but he loves his brother and I’m sure Dorian will get through to him.” Isabelle smiled warmly at me.

“Yeah, but I don’t like depending on others,” I admitted. “Dorian shouldn’t have to do anything. I should be able to do everything on my own.”

“Oh, same,” Isabelle nodded. “But you have to realize this is something big. I feel like if you have someone willing to do the work for you or help you out, you should take it. No one should have to do things alone, you know?”

“But I’ve been depending on people ever since I got here. I haven’t done anything for myself,” I reminded her. Isabelle’s brow furrowed.

“What are you talking about? Of course you’ve done things on your own. Do you honestly think that other people have been doing your work for you? Even if people are helping you, your accomplishments and your growth are your own.” She sighed, taking another sip of coffee.

* * *

I’d gotten used to walking to class on my own. But as I got to the elevator, I paused for a moment. I wondered how Tsukasa was doing. Usually he sent me a Magic Note in the morning, but it just occurred to my that I hadn’t heard from him. My body immediately started to move on its own. I needed to go check on Tsukasa.

The door to his room was opened slightly and I immediately pushed it open, only to for it to meet resistance.

“Don’t open it more. You’re going to knock me over.” Tsukasa’s voice came from the other side.

“Tsukasa?! Are you okay?” I wiggled through the small opening and found Tsukasa sitting on the ground, clutching a trash can to his chest. I immediately knelt down beside him, pushing his hair out of his face. He heaved and stuck his head into the can, vomiting. I hurried over to his desk, grabbing the box of tissues and pulling some out for him. He took them and cleaned himself up.

“Sorry, I’m staying home today,” he said.

“Don’t worry about me. Do you need me to take you to the infirmary?” I asked him.

“No, it’s fine. I just need a moment.”

“Are you really sure? I don’t mind helping you down there.”

“Really, it’s fine,” he insisted. “Azusa told me he’ll be getting another batch of my medication and I’ll be fine in a few days time.” He gave me a soft smile, hand reaching out and cupping my cheek. Despite the comforting gesture, nausea came over me. “Don’t worry about me. It’s gonna be okay.”

“I know. Everything’s going to be okay.” I spoke the words, trying to believe in them. I wasn’t going to let Tsukasa die. I had to do something to save him. I _was_ going to do something to save him. Tsukasa leaned against me, snuggling into my side. “What if I stay here with you today?” I posed the question carefully, glancing over at him.

“I’d like that, but are you sure? Is it going to stress you to skip classes today?”

“I’ve been doing a lot better in classes. I’m sure its fine.” I put my arm around him, trying to snuggle closer to him. He put the trash bin to the side and grabbed my hand.

“I’m really grateful for you. I hope you know that,” he told me. My heart melted.

“And I’m grateful for you. I’m so grateful we met.”

* * *

I glanced at the clock on the wall. If I was going to meet Azusa, I’d have to leave right now. Tsukasa and I had been laying on his bed for the past hour or so. Glancing down at Tsukasa, I saw he was still fast asleep. If it wasn’t for the steady rise and fall of his chest, I would’ve worried… Carefully, I climbed over his legs and got out of bed. As quietly as I could, I sneaked out of the room. Tsukasa would probably be upset when he realized I left, but this needed to be done.

Classes were still going on, so the hallways in the dorm were silent and empty. At least that was nice. I didn’t have to worry about getting caught playing hooky. In fact, everything seemed empty and quiet as I made my way into the forest and to mine and Azusa’s meeting spot. It was as if the whole forest was empty. There were no owls crying out, no insects making wretched sounds. Nothing.

As I approached the meeting spot, I could see a dark figure in the moonlight, a flashlight in its hand.

“Azusa?” I called out.

“What?” he responded, irritated. I sighed a breath of relief.

“Sorry, I couldn’t tell if it was you or not,” I told him.

“Whatever. Let’s go.” He grabbed my arm and pulled me towards the spring. I wrenched my arm out of his grasp.

“You don’t have to hold onto me. I’m fine,” I told him. He said nothing. “Look, I’ve been thinking about this, and I have an idea. If the unicorn won’t give us a piece of its horn, I’m willing to make a deal with a demon -”

“A demon?” he interrupted. “You’re seriously saying you’d rather try and strike a deal with a demon than just killing an animal?”

“But we wouldn’t have to kill anything!” I protested.

“Why are you still hung up on that? I’ve already told you… Ugh, I’m not having this argument again. I hate repeating myself.”

“But it just makes more sense! Do you want to keep coming back here and killing unicorns every couple years or make a deal with something and have it done forever?”

“… You wouldn’t understand it,” he muttered. “I’m not going to rely on someone or something else. The only reason I brought you into this is because Tsukasa says you’re good with healing magic and I would assume you want him alive.”

“You don’t want to rely on people?”

“I just told you I hate… Are you trying to piss me off on purpose?!”

“No, no! That’s not it at all! I… I get it. I really do.”

“You’re so weird,” he said dismissively before heading into the spring. Was this how I looked to other people? Stubborn and leading myself down a difficult path for no reason? Not listening to reason? Even if Azusa refused to listen to me or anyone else, I knew how he felt.

I wasn’t sure if the feeling comforted or worried me. Uneasy, I stepped into the spring. A unicorn was already by the water, but I couldn’t tell if it was the same one Azusa and I talked to.

“Hello?” I called out.

“Ugh, you two again,” the unicorn sighed. _I guess that answers that question. Jerk._ “If you’re here to bargain with me, I stand by what I said earlier.”

“Are you really okay with letting someone die when you could have saved his life?” I challenged it.

“Do you really think I’m going to believe two strangers I just met? You’re probably lying,” he said dismissively.

“But do you want to take that risk? Do you want blood on your hands? Er, hooves?” I corrected myself. Azusa groaned.

“Be quiet. I’ll take care of this,” he told me, grabbing my shoulder. “Get ready to back me up if needed.”

“Azusa?!”

“Stand back or you’ll get caught in the magic circle,” he ordered.

“The what?!” He grabbed my arm and threw me away from the spring. I stumbled over my feet and fell to the ground. “Ow! Azusa, what the heck?!”

“封! (Fuu!)” he shouted, writing a symbol in the air. My stomach dropped as faint markings in the ground started to glow. It was happening. This was really happening.

“Azusa, stop!” I screamed at him, scrambling to my feet. There was a blinding light and I shut my eyes as I grabbed Azusa around the waist, hiding my face in his back.

“Get off me!” he yelled.

“No! Please don’t kill it! Just take part of the horn, please!” I pleaded.

“Stop being a baby,” he ordered me callously. “I’m taking care of everything. Just stand back and if I need healing, do it.”

His fingers dug into my arms and he wrenched my arms opened, pushing me away from him. The magic circle on the ground faintly glowed, and from some of these lines stood what looked like large slabs of glowing crystal. The unicorn was desperately rearing back, crashing onto the slabs, trying to break it. Azusa leaned down, taking his backpack off and leaving it at my feet.

“Get ready to help me with the butchering. I can’t do that alone,” he told me. Bile rose in my throat at the mental image. Azusa approached the crystalline cage and I was scrambling to my feet, reaching for my wand. But as I raised to attack Azusa, I froze. What if Azusa was right? What if this was the only way?

… _No, this isn’t the way…_

Tsukasa’s medicine only kept him healthy for a few years. If we went down this road, Azusa would have to kill unicorn after unicorn after unicorn. And what if we couldn’t get access to one? What happened when we killed the last one? What happened when we had no medicine to give Tsukasa? This wasn’t sustainable. This wasn’t a long-term solution.

“O sacred water, become a piercing arrow! 'Sagitta Aqua!'" I cried. A large arrow of water went flying through the air and hit Azusa squarely in the back. He cried out in pain, stumbling forward. He froze, then slowly turned to my. My stomach churned as his rage-filled face glared at me. I tried to stand my ground. “I told you, we’re not killing it.” My voice shook. Azusa took one step towards me, then another. I stumbled back.

“I knew I couldn’t trust you,” he said, voice dangerously low. He lifted his hand, starting to write something in the air. I readied my wand, ready to bring up a shield. “炎! (En!)” A bolt of fire came roaring towards me.

“Suctum Aqua!” I quickly brought up a shield and stood my ground, digging my feet into the ground. The flame pushed against my shield, but I kept it up. Even if they were getting extinguished from my shield, seeing flames right in front of your eyes was terrifying.

Suddenly, the flames disappeared and I heard Azusa scream. My shield dropped and I saw Dorian, arm raised, entering the clearing, Aika and Tsukasa following behind him.

“Tsukasa?!” Through my shock, I somehow managed to run over to him, taking him in my arms. “What are you doing here?! You need to be at home, resting!”

“Aika told me what’s going on. I couldn’t let them come for you on their own,” Tsukasa said, pushing some hair behind my ear.

“Tsukasa…” As glad as I was to see him, I couldn’t help but worry about his health and how he was feeling right now. Dorian put his arm down and Azusa choked for air, chest heaving violently.

“Our baby Unus transfer told us everything and we told Tsukasa everything. Let’s talk this out, Azusa,” Aika said gently, approaching him.

“There’s… There’s no other way…” he insisted.

“This isn’t sustainable. What happens when we can’t find a unicorn? We need another solution. Please, if you won’t listen to me, listen to them!” I begged him.

“None of you understand what I’ve been through!” he shouted. “If killing a unicorn is the only way to save Tsukasa, then so be it!”

“Hey, we’re all here for you,” Aika said gently, grabbing his arm. “We can all put our heads together and figure something out.”

“Shut up!” he screamed. She trembled and immediately took a few steps back, body shaking. “I’ve tried everything and this is the only thing that will work!”

“Oh, really? You’ve really gone through every possible solution? I find that hard to believe,” Dorian called him out, crossing his arms over his chest. Azusa glared at him.

“Oh, you’re really going to be like that?” he asked dangerously. He raised his hand and I moved in front of Tsukasa, ready to throw up another shield. But in an instant, Tsukasa moved in front of me, storming over to Azusa.

“That’s enough!” Tsukasa yelled.” They’re just trying to help you! We’re trying to help you! You’ve always been like this, insisting you can do everything by yourself. You’re so stubborn! Can’t you just accept our help How will it hurt you if you get help from us?”

“How many times do I have to repeat myself?!” Azusa roared. “There’s no other way. It’s you or the unicorn! And I’m not losing you! You’re all I have left! You have no idea what I’ve been through! I don’t care if I have to kill every unicorn on this damn planet. I will save you. I won’t let you die again!”

Everything froze.

_Die… Again…?_

Azusa’s face crumbled. He took a few steps toward Tsukasa, who stepped away.

“What are you talking about?!” Tsukasa demanded, voice shaking. Azusa remained silent. “I… Azusa, what are you talking about?!”

“I promised our parents I would do everything to keep you safe. I couldn’t let you die. I couldn’t let you stay dead,” Azusa said quietly.

“You’re crazy! You’ve completely lost it!” Tsukasa shouted. His shoulders started shaking. I hurried over to him and embraced him. His knees buckled and his full weight dropped into my arms. Carefully, I sat down with him. Azusa sprinted over to us, kneeling in front of Tsukasa and I.

“The past doesn’t matter,” Azusa said. “You’re alive now and I’m going to do whatever it takes to keep you alive. Even if you hate me, you’re still my brother and I’ll do anything to keep you safe.”

“Why... Why didn’t you tell me?!” Tsukasa demanded.

“I thought it would be best if you didn’t know,” Azusa replied. Part of me couldn’t fault him on that, seeing what was happening now.

“But it’s my life! I deserve to know what’s going on!” Tsukasa retorted.

“You want to know the truth?”

“Yes!”

Azusa sighed, sitting down by us. Defeated. Exhausted.

“It happened when you caught cholera,” he began. “I tried everything to save you, but when you…” He swallowed hard. “I couldn’t accept it. You were just fourteen. I’d promised our parents I’d keep you safe and I failed. So I searched for a way to bring you back. A merchant had a unicorn carcass on his hands and I was willing to shell out for it. The horn and some magic I learned from a visiting Gedonelunian woman did it.

“You came back to life. All I had to worry about was giving you your medication. As long as you were taking that, you’d stay alive. But then we moved and I thought things would be easier here for us. I’ve been trying to get bits of unicorn horns to give you the right dosage, but… I haven’t been able to. And without the medication, your body’s shutting down. That’s why we need to kill this unicorn. You’re dying and I refuse to lose you again.”

“Azusa…” Tsukasa whispered. We fell quiet. Tsukasa quietly sobbed and I just… I didn’t even know what to think. But Azusa’s desperation made even more sense now that I knew the truth. Even though I was relieved to hear Tsukasa wasn’t sick, it wasn’t like it mattered. Somehow, his body shutting down was worse. Illnesses had cures. Dying like this had very few.

“… Dorian,” Aika spoke up quietly. “I want to break our contract.”


	11. Contract

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Amidst the chaos, a solution arises.

You could have heard a pin drop. We all turned to Aika.

“Aika… What?” Dorian was clearly struggling for the words. But she kept going.

“If I break my contract with you, you can make one with Tsukasa and heal him, can’t you?!” she demanded, grabbing Dorian’s shirt, looking frantic. My mind felt like it was in a whirlpool.

“What do you mean, ‘your contract?’” I demanded.

“I don’t know what you are exactly, but you’re not human, are you, Dorian? I knew there was something off about you since the moment we met,” Azusa revealed.

“That’s right,” Dorian nodded. My brain stopped working.

“You’re… You’re not human?” Tsukasa asked.

“No, I’m an incubus. And technically speaking, Aika’s familiar.” It all made sense now. The interest in demonology. Being able to detect love and lust. Heck, even suggesting making contracts with demons.

“An incubus?” Tsukasa’s brow furrowed. I was about to explain what it was, but Azusa cut me off.

“Why didn’t you or Aika tell me?” His voice was dripping with pain.

“No one but Headmaster Randolph and Isabelle know, and Izzy only found out on accident. We didn’t think advertising what Dorian is would be a good idea,” Aika explained. There was a flash on pain in Azusa’s eyes, but he nodded.

“Dorian, I’ll do whatever you want if you’ll heal Tsukasa,” he said, standing up.

“Hold on -” Dorian began.

“Yeah, wait a minute,” Tsukasa cut in, riding to his feet. “If anyone’s making a new contract, it’s me.”

“No, you’re absolutely not,” Azusa snapped.

“Can’t I get a fucking word in?!” Dorian shouted. Azusa and Tsukasa immediately fell silent. “I’m already in a contract with Aika and due to the conditions we set years ago, I can’t make other contracts.”

“I told you that I want to break our contract,” Aika said angrily. “I don’t care what happens to me. If it means you can make another deal with them, I’m fine with it.”

“But you know what will happen if we end the contract before you’ve fulfilled your end of the bargain,” Dorian reminded her.

“I know. But the most important part of our deal’s already done. I’m okay with breaking it,” she insisted.

“What will happen to you if you break the contract?” Tsukasa asked.

“I have an idea, but I’m not sure. I won’t die. I know that much.” She refused to look at anyone. I didn’t know what she was hiding, but I just hoped it wasn’t something serious.

“I’ll have to take back my gift to you and your soul will be mine,” Dorian said.

“That last bit was already in our initial agreement. Let’s do it,” she said. Dorian grimaced before glancing over to Tsukasa and Azusa.

“If I’m not your type, there’s others like me you could make a deal with. But I can’t verify how trustworthy they are,” he told Azusa.

“No, I’m fine with making a contract with you. I’m more than okay with it,” Azusa said.

“Wait, hold on a moment. I’m making the deal,” Tsukasa butted in.

“No, you aren’t,” Azusa replied.

“I’m an adult now, Azusa. I need to start doing things for myself,” Tsukasa argued.

“You are, but I’m making the contract,” Azusa said stubbornly. “You don’t even know what an incubus _is.”_

“What if I made the contract?” I offered. I would be okay with it and I didn’t want to see them fight. “Then you wouldn’t have to argue about this. I’m willing to make the sacrifice for you, Tsukasa.”

“Uh, I get what you’re saying, but ouch,” Dorian said with a frown.

“No,” Azusa and Tsukasa said in unison.

“I don’t want anyone to make a contract when I’m the one benefiting from it,” Tsukasa went on, turning to his brother.

“We’re all benefiting from it. We all want you to alive, Tsukasa. Look. I get it. I know I can be smothering sometimes. But you’re the only family I have left and it’s my job as your guardian to keep you safe. If I didn’t want to do this, I wouldn’t offer,” Azusa told him.

“I know, but…”

“How about we make a deal? I’ll promise to try and stop being so overprotective if you let me make this contract for you,” Azusa suggested.

“You should be trying to do that in the first place!” Tsukasa cried. “You always act like I’m incapable of doing anything and you never give me a chance to prove myself.”

“I’m not doing that on purpose,” Azusa defended himself. “I’m just trying to do what’s best for you. I know you’re capable of things, but I want to take care of you, Tsukasa.”

The two fell silent. Tsukasa frowned, folding his arms in front of his chest.

“Okay. You can make the contract,” Tsukasa relented. Azusa smiled genuinely for the first time I’d met him. It wasn’t as nice as Tsukasa’s.

“All right. And I’ll try to stop being so overprotective,” he promised. He glanced over to Dorian. “So, what’s the price of making a contract with you?”

“It’s… Uh, I feel weird hitting on you while your brother’s here,” Dorian commented, glancing at Tsukasa.

“He doesn’t mind,” Azusa claimed.

“Yes I do,” Tsukasa spoke up.

“I’m flexible with payment,” Dorian carried on. “First-born children, letting me roam the earth, marriage… Other things. I take it you know what an incubus is?”

“I do,” Azusa nodded.

“You have options.”

“What did you give him, Aika?” Azusa asked. She laughed nervously.

“Uh, well I kinda went overboard with mine. But in my defense, I had to because he kept refusing to make a contract until I made him a deal he couldn’t refuse,” she responded, refusing to look him in the eye.

“You were twelve years old. Of course I didn’t want to make a contract with you,” Dorian pointed out. Suddenly, the “engagement” story made more sense. But still, making a contract that young… Just how awful was her family that she made a contract with Dorian to get away from them?

“I let roam him the earth, make other contracts, get other energy sources until I was eighteen. Then I promised him I’d have his kid and we’d get married and all that domestic fluff,” she explained.

“What do you mean, ‘roam the earth?’” Azusa asked.

“Unless my partner puts it into their contract, I’m only able to come up to the human world when summoned,” Dorian clarified.

“I see.”

“If we’re going to do this, let’s do this. I want to get this over with,” Aika said. She sat down next to where Azusa stood. Dorian sighed, and nodded, kneeling on the other side of her.

“I’m sorry, baby, but this is going to hurt,” he said tenderly.

“I know.”

Dorian put his hand to her head. Azusa knelt down, grabbing her hand and already it looked like she had a vice-like grip on it. There was a flash of light and Aika screamed. Azusa let out of string of profanities. Something gold and sparkling flowed out of her in and into Dorian’s hand. I reached out, stroking her back. It looked like she was convulsing.

When Dorian pulled his hand away, she stopped. She doubled over and vomited, gagging and chest heaving.

“Are you okay?!” I crawled over to her, helping her sit up. She just nodded.

“Azusa, Tsukasa?” Dorian spoke up.

“Let’s do this,” Azusa said.

They stood up and I stayed on the ground with Aika. Dorian reached out his hand to Azusa, who took it.

“I want you to completely heal Tsukasa and fix his immune system. He’ll be healthy and able to fight off illnesses just fine. In exchange, I give you permission to stay in the human world indefinitely and I will provide you with any energy you need,” Azusa told him. Dorian grinned.

“I accept your deal, Azusa.” Again, there was a blinding light. Red ribbons of light wrapped around Dorian and Azusa’s arms. They quickly faded from view. Dorian smiled and looked over to Tsukasa.

“Come over here. It’s time for Dr. Dorian to fix you up,” he said. Aika groaned. Tsukasa walked over to Dorian, who raised his hand. “I’m not sure if this is going to hurt, so brace yourself.”

“That’s not very reassuring, but okay,” Tsukasa replied. He stiffened up and Dorian put his hands on Tsukasa’s shoulder. A calming blue light radiated from his hands and enveloped Tsukasa’s body. Tsukasa twitched, biting his lip, but his reaction to whatever Dorian was doing was a lot less violent than Aika’s.

It was like a switch went off. Tsukasa’s face, which had been drained of color, looked lively. He no longer looked exhausted; I hadn’t realized how tired he looked until now.

“There you go,” Dorian said. He knelt down to help Aika and I traded places with him, hurrying to Tsukasa.

“How do you feel?” I asked.

“Not like garbage,” he replied with a crooked grin. I couldn’t help but laugh. My arms wrapped around him, pulling him into a hug.

“I’m so glad you’re okay.” Tears welled in my eyes and I learned into Tsukasa, resting my head on his shoulder. This nightmare was over. Tsukasa was going to be okay. He wasn’t going to die. This was all over.

“We should head back to campus before it gets too early,” Dorian spoke up. He picked up Aika and motioned for us to leave. “And I’m not going to make you do this, Azusa, but you should probably free that unicorn.” _Oh yeah…_

We looked to the unicorn in the magical cage. It still looked furious.

“Thank you for finally noticing me, filth,” it seethed, glaring daggers at Dorian, who returned the cod glare.

“Do us a favor and die, you waste of space. I hate unicorns,” he muttered before turning to head back to campus. Tsukasa grabbed my hand and started pulling me along, but Azusa stopped him.

“Hey, can we stay back for a moment and talk?” he asked.

“Uh, sure,” Tsukasa replied.

“I’ll be waiting at the dorms for you,” I told him. I quickly leaned in, giving him a quick kiss. “I love you.”

“I love you, too.” He gave me another kiss. He squeezed my hand before going over to his brother. As I caught up with Aika and Dorian, I glanced back at Tsukasa. I felt so much relief. This nightmare was over.


	12. Happy Ending

As soon as my alarm went off, my stomach started aching. Or maybe I just became aware of it aching? That sickly feeling when you don’t get enough sleep filled my stomach and my eyes burned as I opened them. It was six in the morning and we’d just gone to bed a few hours ago. But today was a special day: my trial. The day where I’d become an official student or not.

Beside me, Tsukasa turned over onto his back. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes and groaned.

“I feel like I only got a few minutes of sleep,” he complained.

“Me too. I wish this wasn’t so early,” I sighed.

“Our Judgments were this early too and I hated it.”

I didn’t want to get out of bed, but this wasn’t something I could be late to. I crawled out of bed and slowly started getting ready for the day.

“You can stay here if you want and sleep a little longer,” I told him.

“And let you go to your Judgment by yourself? No way.” He got out of bed and started going through his backpack for some fresh clothes. As we got ready, I swore I could smell something cooking. It had to be my imagination, right?

“Hey, do you want to go get breakfast after the Judgment?” I asked.

“I’m down. I should be hungry by then and it’d be nice to celebrate you becoming an official student,” he said with a grin.

“Don’t say that! We don’t know if I’ll pass or not.”

“Love…” He went over to me, cupping my face in his hands. “There’s no way you’re not making it. You’re going to pass. I know it.” His words soothed me. I put my hands over his and kissed him. What was I going to do if I didn’t make it?

When I opened the door, the smell of pastries and cinnamon filled the air. Tsukasa and I glanced at each other. I guess I hadn’t imagined it at all. The door to our kitchen was open and when we peaked inside, we were in for a surprise.

“Guys?!” I squeaked.

“Good, you’re awake. I thought I’d have to go and wake you up,” Isabelle laughed. Isabelle and Aika sat at our table while Dorian was at his usual post at the oven.

“What are you guys doing up? It’s so early,” I said.

“Did you really think we weren’t going to have breakfast with you? Or should I say, you two?” Aika teased me. My face was burning. I was already trying to avoid Dorian’s burning eyes and this wasn’t helping me feel calmer. It’s not like anything happened, but even if I explained that, they wouldn’t believe me.

“You realize people can just sleep in beds, right? You don’t have to be doing anything else,” Tsukasa said in a deadpan. Isabelle snorted.

“Sure, sure,” she grinned. I tried to ignore her snickering and grabbed some food.

“So how’re you feeling this morning, sweetie?” Aika asked.

“I’m nervous,” I admitted.

“Don’t be! You’re totally gonna make it,” Isabelle said encouragingly.

“You’ve been through worse. This is nothing,” Dorian piped up. … You know what? They were right. I’d been though so much in the past couple days and I’d improved by leaps and bounds. With everyone’s help and my own effort, we’d weathered through this past two weeks. I grabbed some food and sat down across from Isabelle.

“I really appreciate everything you guys have done for me. Thank you,” I told them.

“Oh, don’t worry about it! Helping each other is something we should all be doing,” Aika said.

“Maybe people in the Night Class will actually start working together now,” Dorian muttered.

“Huh?”

“No one here really gets along. I mean, I think it’s changing a little bit since the Unus students have their little cliques and that’s better than nothing. But the Night Class has been notorious for lone wolf attitudes,” Aika explained.

“I wonder if the Day Class is like that,” Dorian mused.

“I guess we’ll find out,” she shrugged.

“Huh? What’s that mean?” I asked. The two looked to each other.

“Do you want to tell them, Aika?” Dorian asked.

“Tell me _what?”_

“We, uh, we’re no longer Night Class students,” Aika said quietly.

“What?!”

“When I made a contract with Dorian, I gained the ability to use magic. Now that I broke it and I can’t make another contract with him, there’s no point in us staying here,” she said. So that’s why she was evading our questions about how she’d be affected for breaking her contract...

“Headmaster Randolph was nice enough to offer us teaching assistant jobs, at least for the end of the year. I’ll be helping to teach summoning magic and Aika’s helping out the music department,” Dorian told us.

“So we won’t see you guys that much anymore?” My shoulders slumped.

“No, but we’ll make sure to keep in touch! And you can come visit us once we get our new place set up!” Aika said cheerfully. Even though the idea of our suite just being myself and Isabelle felt weird and it hurt to know Aika and Dorian wouldn’t be around, at least they were still going to be in town. They weren’t going away forever. This was just another step in their journey.

“I hope you guys enjoy the teaching positions,” I told them with a smile.

“Thanks! I hope so too,” Aika laughed.

The sun was already shining brightly as Tsukasa and I made our way to the auditorium. It was still early enough in the morning that our shoes squeaked as we walked on the wet grass. It was going to be a beautiful day and part of me was sad I’d become nocturnal. This was perfect picnic weather.

“How are you feeling?” Tsukasa asked.

“I’m a little nervous, but I think I’ll be okay. But what about you? How are you feeling after all of this?” I asked. He sighed.

“It’s been pretty hard coping with everything Azusa told me. It’s… weird to think about, to say the least,” he told me. I squeezed his hand reassuringly. “I’m just trying to stay positive. This is a second chance, isn’t it? And I’m going to try and live life to the fullest.”

“That’s a good way to think about it,” I agreed. I had to wonder though, how hard it would be to find a therapist for him that wouldn’t immediately rat Azusa out for necromancy and attempted murder of a unicorn.

“And physically, I’ve never felt better,” Tsukasa said.

“I’m so glad for that. I’m just glad this is all over.”

“Me too. Now we can just focus on us.” He put his arm around me and I snuggled into his side. We continued our journey to the auditorium, passing through the Day Class’ side of campus. I couldn’t help but wonder what would’ve happened had I been accepted into the Day Class instead of the Night Class. Would I have been able to improve so much? Would the days before my trial be peaceful and calm? Or just as busy and stressful as the past couple days?

Although I wasn’t sure why I’d been selected for the Night Class, I was glad I was here. If I’d been accepted into the Day Class, I would’ve never met Tsukasa. Or Isabelle. Or Dorian and Aika. Maybe I never would’ve learned that I can depend on people. At least, not yet.

We reached the auditorium’s door. Tsukasa turned to me.

“You got this. I know you do,” he reassured me.

“I got this…” I nodded. _Everything is going to be okay._ I took a deep breath and entered the auditorium.

The auditorium was lofty and to be honest, it looked more like a cathedral than a place for school assemblies and rallies. The ceiling were soaring and the light stone was so bright in the sun light. Headmaster Randolph stood behind a podium, smiling.

“Good morning, Headmaster,” I greeted him.

“Good morning. Are you ready to start the trial?”

“I am!” He chuckled.

“I’m glad to hear that enthusiasm! May I please see your Acceptance Letter?”

“Yeah, just give me a moment, please.” I rummaged through my bag, searching for the letter. I came across the Love Holiday card from Fandamilia and smiled. Even if Isabelle didn’t like her, she was a sweet girl deep down. I found the letter and handed it over to Headmaster Randolph.

“Thank you very much,” he said. He carefully placed it in front of a golden pair of scales.

 _Are those used in the Judgment? It’s not based off of grades or professors recommendations? … Huh. You learn something new every day._ "Oh Scale of Judgment... This student shall be judged to be a rightful student or not. Reveal your judgment now! … Please your hand over your letter.”

Silently, I obeyed his orders. As soon as my hand went over the letter, the scales started to shine bright. The light got brighter and brighter and I shut my eyes. But then it suddenly dissipated. I opened my eyes and my letter was still glittering. The words “provisional” started to fade from the paper and giddiness was slowly settling into my body.

“Congratulations, you’ve become an official student,” Headmaster Randolph told me with a smile.

“Yay! I did it!” I jumped up and down, clapping my hands together.

“You’ve improved a lot in the past two weeks. You should be proud of yourself,” he told me.

“I am! But I couldn’t have done it without my friends and Tsukasa helping me out.”

“I’m happy to hear that. You two looked so terrified when I confirmed your Buddy status. It’s good to know you two have been working hard together.”

“Yeah, we’ve both been working really hard. And we’ll continue to work hard!”

“Good. Now go rest up. You probably aren’t used to being up this early,” he laughed.

“Yes, sir. Thank you again!”

“No need to thank me. This is all thanks to you.”

I knew that he didn’t mean anything about it, and it was true that I put in a lot of hard work to get here, but really, this wasn’t just my victory. This belonged to me and my friends.

I left the auditorium and found Tsukasa leaning against the wall, waiting for me. His face lit up when he saw me.

“It’s official!” I announced.

“That’s great!” His arms wrapped around me tightly, spinning me around in a circle.

“I’m so happy nothing has to change.” I breathed a sigh of relief. It really did feel like a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.

“Me too. I don’t know what I’d do if you got rejected,” he said.

“We don’t have to worry about that!”

Tsukasa cupped my face with his hand, smiling softly at me.

“I’m so proud of you.” He kissed my nose and I couldn’t help but giggle.

“I couldn’t have done it alone. This was teamwork,” I told him.

“Maybe it was, but you’re allowed to take the credit if you want. We could’ve helped you, but your effort’s what made this happen.”

Perhaps he was right. But I preferred to think of it as a group effort.

“So, how about we go back to the dorms and get some sleep? We got classes today, after all.”

“Let’s do it.”

Holding hands, we walked back to our side of campus. The giddiness died down a little, but there were still butterflies in my stomach. I’d made it into my dream school. I got to officially enroll. And of course, I wouldn’t have to leave Tsukasa’s side.

This was the beginning of a new wonderful chapter in our lives.

Months later…

The dining room in Aika and Dorian’s apartment wasn’t the biggest space. The table clearly meant for two people had the six of us crowded around it, eating and chatting. Dorian had pulled over a recliner for Isabelle to sit on, Aika sitting on the arm of the chair. Tsukasa say on a step stool and we were all shoulder to shoulder. But somehow, that just made this way more fun.

“… And then! And then he gave this truly hot take and my soul left my body. I just don’t understand how Clive gets all these terrible hot takes,” Isabelle told us, gesticulating wildly the whole time.

“I’m pretty sure he thinks they’re stupid, too,” Tsukasa said.

“Has it occurred to you he’s just doing it to torment you?” Azusa asked.

“Yeah, he likes trolling people. He does it to Viggo all the time,” Tsukasa pointed out. Dorian snorted.

“Oh yeah, Viggo and his magic bong,” he laughed.

“He’d tell you it’s a pipe,” Aika giggled. I snickered before taking a drink of my punch.

“Do you have anything fun planned for the summer, Isabelle?” Tsukasa asked.

“Nah. I’m just babysitting the whole time,” she told us. “If Nox goes and visits his aunt, I’ll hang out with him some, but other than that, it’ll be an uneventful summer. What about you guys?”

“There’s some nice hiking trails around Reitz that we might hit. But I think it’ll just be a sleep summer for us, too,” I said.

“After this semester, I’m totally fine with that,” Tsukasa said.

“Yeah, things have been so crazy. Hopefully next year isn’t so insane,” she laughed.

“It makes me glad I was put in the Day Class,” Azusa commented.

“Oh, you’re one to talk. The Day Class is just as chaotic. Like that stuff with Klaus and Randy? That’s straight out of a soap opera,” Aika said.

“Who?” Tsukasa asked.

“Prefect Klaus is an old acquaintance of Aika and he hates Randy’s guts. It’s kind of amusing, to be honest,” Azusa informed him.

“You’re only saying that because you don’t have to deal with the two of them at the same time. Imagine having them in a class together,” Dorian pouted.

“That’s unfortunate,” Azusa said unsympathetically. I snorted and glanced at my watch. I almost choked at the time.

“Tsukasa, we need to head to the train station,” I said quietly, grabbing his shirt sleeve.

“Aw, you guys gotta head out?” Aika frowned.

“Yeah, we can’t miss our train,” Tsukasa said.

“Well then, I guess we won’t keep you.”

We got up and started giving hugs to everyone, saying our goodbyes. We’d be back in town a week before school started to spend more time with Azusa, Aika, and Dorian, but until then, Tsukasa and I would have the summer to ourselves.

“Be sure to write me once in a while,” Azusa told him.

“I promise. Don’t overwork yourself,” Tsukasa replied.

“I won’t,” Azusa promised.

It was nice to see them truly getting along now. Tsukasa and I grabbed our backpacks and suitcases and leaving the trio’s apartment, we made our way to the train station. Although I was sad to leave our friends, this was going to be an amazing summer. I just knew it. The day was beautiful and there were so many beautiful days ahead of Tsukasa and I. And hands clasped together and our shoulders rubbing against each other, we started our next big adventure.


	13. Normal Ending

I groaned as my alarm went off. I just wanted to sleep in, especially since this was usually when I was going to bed. But my Judgment was in an hour and half and I couldn’t be late for that. Begrudgingly, I got out of bed and got ready. _Strange. I can smell food cooking,_ _but Dorian should be asleep right now_ _._

Once dressed, I went to the kitchen to get something to eat only to find I’d been right. Like so many mornings before, Dorian was cooking breakfast, piling pancakes onto a plate. Isabelle and Aika were at the table, all of them looking exhausted.

“Good, you’re awake. I thought I’d have to go and wake you up,” Isabelle said with a weak smile.

“What are you guys doing up? It’s so early,” I asked. Dorian and Aika glanced at each other, brows furrowed. “… Am I missing something?”

“We’re withdrawing from the academy,” Aika said after a short silence.

“What?! Why?” My heart was cleaved into two.

“I don’t have my magic anymore. That was why I made a deal with Dorian in the first place. I wanted to be a wizardess and he made it happen. Now that I can’t do magic, there’s no point in us being here,” she said.

“But… But can’t you just make another contract with Dorian and get it back?!”

“I can only make a deal with someone once,” he informed me. His words weighed on me and my shoulders slumped.

“Don’t look so sad! Dorian and I have a place in town. You can come visit us on weekends if you like!” Aika said. That’s true, I could. But it wouldn’t be the same. The thought of our suite just being Isabelle and I felt wrong. Even if I wasn’t particularly close to them, our suite was the four of us, together.

“Good morning.” I heard Tsukasa’s voice in my ear as I felt his arms wrap around my waist and pull me close.

“Good morning!” I managed to turn around and give him a quick kiss. “Why don’t you join us for breakfast?”

“Would that be all right?” he asked, looking to Dorian.

“Yeah, of course. I can’t say no our new boyfriend’s brother, after all. Plates are in this cabinet,” Dorian said. He tapped one of the upper cabinets. Tsukasa’s hand slid into mine and we got our food. We’d always had lunches and sometimes dinners together, but this was the first time we’d ever had breakfast together.

I hoped we could do this more often.

* * *

“You didn’t have to come with me. After all, you need to be resting up,” I fussed over Tsukasa. He just laughed.

“I’m fine. My body isn’t shutting down now and I feel great. And besides, what kind of boyfriend would I be if I let you go by yourself?” He squeezed my hand and calmed a bit of my nerves.

“I’m glad you’re feeling better, but how much sleep did you get?” I asked.

“How much sleep did _you_ get?” he asked back. I laughed, leaning into him.

“Okay, fine, I’ll stop asking question.”

“How about we take a nap after this?” he suggested. The thought was tempting. It was more than tempting.

“If I get accepted we can, but if not, I have to start packing…”

“Hey, don’t look so glum. You’ve got this. You’ve improved so much since you got here,” he pointed out.

“I know, but I’m still so far behind in the Night Class.” I sighed. “Maybe if I was a Day Class student, it would be enough.”

“Maybe, but I’m glad you’re not a Day Class student. We wouldn’t have met otherwise.”

“That’s true.”

It was strange to think I was so close to never meeting Tsukasa. That if one thing was different, none of this would’ve happened and things would be so drastically different. It was honestly a bit hard to wrap my head around.

The Day Class side of campus was so… bright. I mean, of course there was a lot more natural sunlight here, but the buildings weren’t the same dark, goth kinds we had back on our side of campus. The school felt like a whole different place over here. _Huh. I wonder why they did that…_

Even the inside of the main building felt so different. I really felt like I was entering a prestigious boarding school instead of a small goth school for misfits. We quickly found a large set of wooden door, the plaque beside it telling us it was the auditorium. My nerves started up again.

“Good luck. I believe in you,” he said encouragingly. We leaned in for another kiss, his lips warm against mine.

“Thank you, Tsukasa.”

The auditorium was huge and lofty. The ceilings were so high, much higher than the ceilings in the library. Cream-colored pillars supported everything and to be honest, part of me thought how fun it’d be to play hide-and-seek in here. Headmaster Randolph was in his daytime forming, smiling warmly at me as I entered. In front of him was a podium with a set of golden scales on it.

“Good morning, Headmaster,” I greeted him.

“Good morning. Are you ready for your Judgment?” I nodded, steeling myself. “Great. Let’s get started. May I see your Acceptance Letter, please?”

“Of course.” I pulled it out of my bag and handed it over to him. He carefully placed it in front of the scales.

"Oh Scale of Judgment... This student shall be judged to be a rightful student or not. Reveal your judgment now! … Please your hand over your letter,” he instructed.

Silently, I obeyed his orders. As soon as my hand went over the letter, the scales started to shine bright. The light got brighter and brighter and I shut my eyes. But then it suddenly dissipated. I opened my eyes and my letter was gone. My stomach sank into the floor.

“Oh…”

“I’m sorry, but you didn’t make it this time. But you’re always welcome to apply next year. I hope you’ll do that.”

“I will. I won’t give up.” This was just a set-back. That was all… Right? That’s what I had to keep telling myself. I refused to lose it in front of the Headmaster.

“I’m glad to hear that,” he said with a soft smile.

“Headmaster, can I ask you a question?”

“Of course. What is it?”

“Why was I accepted into the Night Class instead of the Day Class? I never had any proficiency with dark magic at all, so why did I end there?” I asked.

“Not all the students in the Night Class are chosen to go there because of their skill with dark magic. In fact, only a few of them are good at it prior to enrollment. Students are chosen for the Night Class because of their background or other skills. You were accepted into the Academy because you have what it takes, but I decided to put you into the Night Class because your healing skills were needed there. The Night Class isn’t just a student body; it’s a safe haven for people who need one. And I thought your skills as a healer and someone people back in Reitz considered a kind soul would be a welcome addition to the Night Class. Does that answer your question?” he answered me.

“It does. Thank you.” A safe haven, huh? I supposed that checked out. Tsukasa and his frail state. Aika from her abusive family. I’m sure even more people in the Night Class had tragic stories that I didn’t even know about. I just wish I could’ve helped them more.

“I look forward to seeing you again,” he told me.

“I look forward to returning.”

* * *

“Did you make it?!” As soon as I opened the doors, Tsukasa was on me.

“I… No. I didn’t make it.” His excitement crumbled in seconds.

“Oh…” We embraced each other tightly. “I… I don’t know what to do,” he murmured.

“I’m going to keep applying for the academy. I’m not giving up on being a student here,” I told him. We leaned away. Tsukasa gave me a warm smile.

“I’m glad to hear that. Even if we’re apart, I’m going to do everything I can to support and help you,” he told me, tucking some hair behind my ear.

It’s true, it hurt that I wasn’t accepted. But I needed to keep my head up. This wasn’t the end. This was just another obstacle Tsukasa and I would make it through together.

Months later…

My alarm was going off and I screamed, jumping and flinging pasta sauce into the air. My wooden spoon clattered to the floor and I dove for it, quickly throwing it into the sink. Giddiness jolted through my body and I could barely stand still. It was time! And I didn’t have dinner ready.

I groaned.

I pulled the pasta sauce off my burner and turned it off. I hoped Tsukasa wasn’t starving when he got off the train. This still needed a couple of minutes to cook, but I needed to go pick him up at the train station. I turned my alarm off and quickly grabbed my things, rushing out of the door.

The sun beat down on me as I hurried through Reitz. It’d been months since I came back home and now it was summer. Tsukasa was coming to stay the whole summer and I couldn’t help but skip along the sidewalk, thinking of all the time we were going to spend together.

Reitz was a sleepy town, but a few people were out. We greeted each other with smiles and waves. Normally, I’d stop to talk, but Tsukasa was on his way and I couldn’t wait. I turned the corner and my heart raced. Tsukasa was standing in front of the station, suitcase in his hands.

“Tsukasa!” He perked up and we ran to each other. He threw his arms around me. I forgot how wonderful and warm his hugs were. I held him tightly, leaning in for a kiss. The butterflies in my stomach started fluttering as he deepened the kiss. I could’ve melted right then and there.

“I missed you so much,” he told me.

“I missed you too. It’s felt like years.” There were no words to describe how truly wonderful it was to be with him again. All those months of loneliness were gone. He was here with me and that’s all that mattered.

“It really has.”

Our hands clasped together and I lead him back home. Our home. At least, for the summer it’d be ours. Of course, I hoped I’d get another provisional acceptance letter from the Academy, but for now, I just wanted to enjoy my time with Tsukasa. We had the summer to ourselves and I full intended to make the most out of these few months. After all the hardships we’d been through, it was time for Tsukasa and I to sit back and live our lives together, worry-free.


	14. Bad Ending

I groaned as my alarm went off. I was so used to waking up the late afternoon that having to wake up in the morning was painful. This is when I’d usually be going to sleep, but because of my Judgment, I had to get up.

As I got ready, I thought of everything that’d happened since I got here. I would’ve never imagined my life at the Academy would’ve been so crazy. In almost two weeks, I got a boyfriend, got dragged into crazy situation after crazy situation, made friends, and met a unicorn. Part of me wondered if I got accepted if this would continue being this crazy.

When I went over to the kitchen to get breakfast, I saw Isabelle already awake, some tea in her hands and her head resting on the table.

“Isabelle? What are you doing up?” I asked. Had something happened? She didn’t look so good.

“I was up helping Dorian and Aika pack their stuff,” she told me.

“‘Pack?’ What do you mean?”

Isabelle sighed.

“Aika wasn’t born with magic,” she explained. “That’s why she made a deal with Dorian as a kid. Since she broke the contract, her spellsinging got taken away and she can’t get it back.”

“Wait, so they just dropped out?!” An ache went through my heart. Why didn’t they say goodbye? Why didn’t they say anything at all? Did this whole time together mean nothing to them?

“I’d like to think of it more like an academic leave,” Isabelle continued. “But yeah. They got a place in town so we can visit on weekends. It’s just us now.”

“Babe?” I looked to the entryway to see Tsukasa standing there.

“Tsukasa? What are you doing here?” I went over to him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

“I wanted to go to your Judgment with you,” he told me softly.

“Aw, you didn’t have to do that.” We leaned in for a quick kiss.

“And let my partner do this on their own? No thanks.”

I grabbed his hand and dragged him into the kitchen as I got breakfast ready for myself. Even if it was something mundane like this, it was nice to have him around.

* * *

The Day Class’ side of campus was a lot brighter than I expected. It looked nothing like our goth aesthetic. Everything was bright and cheery. I didn’t hate it, but it definitely felt like a completely different school. Not to mention natural sunlight was something I hadn’t really experienced in a long time. Hand-in-hand, we wandered the lower floor of the main building, looking for the auditorium. With shiny wood and gold plaques next to doors, it was fairly easy to figure out what was what and where we were. Soon, we found the auditorium.

“I’ll wait out here for you. I know you got this,” Tsukasa told me.

“Thank you.”

But I didn’t feel confident like him. Sure, I did have some improvement, but was it enough? We kissed and steeling myself, I made my way into the auditorium. Headmaster Randolph was in his daytime forming, smiling warmly at me.

“Good morning,” Headmaster Randolph greeted me.

“Good morning, sir,” I replied with a small wave.

“Are you ready for the Judgment?” he asked. I nodded, nerves starting to knot my stomach. “Great. Can I have your Acceptance Letter?”

“Uh, yeah, just give me a moment.” I pulled it out of my bag and handed it over. I hoped Headmaster Randolph wouldn’t mind the crumpled edges. He placed the letter in front of a set of golden scales.

"Oh Scale of Judgment... This student shall be judged to be a rightful student or not. Reveal your judgment now! … Please your hand over your letter.” Silently, I obeyed his orders. As soon as my hand went over the letter, the scales started to shine bright. The light got brighter and brighter and I shut my eyes. But as quick as the light came, it went. I opened my eyes and saw the scaled tipped and my letter missing.

“Wait, where… Oh.”

The realization hit me like a train. Randolph’s face fell.

“I’m sorry. I think you know what this means.”

“I do.” My throat was drier than a desert and a dull ache started creeping up it.

“You’re welcome to reapply next year. I hope you’ll try again,” he said, like an awkward dad trying to cheer up his child after something trivial happened.

“I will,” I somehow managed to say.

“I’m glad to heat that.”

With a farewell, I turned on my heel and headed out of the auditorium. Tears welled in my eyes with each step I took. I’d have to go back home. I’d have to leave the Academy. I’d have to leave Tsukasa. He perked up as I opened the door.

“Babe! You… Oh no…” He pulled me into a hug and I couldn’t hold the tears back anymore. I held him tight as I cried. He gently stroked my back. “Listen to me. This isn’t over yet. Even if you have to leave for now, I’ll still write to you. Even if we aren’t together physically, I’m not giving up on you. We’re going to get trough this.”

I sniffled, nodding. I knew deep down he was right, but right now, I didn’t believe it. Who knew when we’d get to have study dates again, if ever again? Who knew when we’d be able to see each other again?


End file.
